Potential Applications of a Convective SIGMET Climatology

The National Weather Service (NWS) issues different types of convective weather warnings to let people know when thunderstorms are producing hazardous conditions. From an aviation weather perspective, there are two broad categories of convective weather warnings: 1) warnings intended for people on the ground, which are issued by the 122 Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) located across the United States, and 2) warnings intended for aircraft in flight, which are called convective SIGMETs (Significant Meteorological Information) and are issued by the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) over the continental United States (CONUS) and adjacent coastal waters.

NWS ground-based convective warnings (i.e., tornado, severe thunderstorm, or flash flooding) have been and continue to be extensively studied by weather researchers, but there has been comparatively less focus on NWS convective warnings for aircraft in flight. To begin addressing this gap, we constructed a 10+ year convective SIGMET climatology for the CONUS and adjacent coastal waters. We will share selected findings from this climatology as well as demonstrate how to apply these findings to produce actionable information for aviation forecasters, including those who brief end-users. We will also discuss potential applications for researchers.