An Analysis of Lightning Activity in the Outer Convective Bands of Hurricane Barry

Hurricane Barry was a disorganized tropical cyclone that made landfall near Intracoastal City, Louisiana in July 2019. The persistent northerly shear that brought dry air into the storm caused a majority of the northern quadrants of the storm to be rain free. As the cyclone moved inland, an outer convective band was draped 80-160 kilometers south-southeast of Galveston, Texas. With the use of the Houston Lightning Mapping Array (HLMA), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), as well as the WSR-88D radar located in Galveston, the goal is to examine the relationship between lightning using the HLMA data and the rainfall rates measured with TRMM within this convective band. Radar data will be considered as well to provide a more well rounded approach to validate our findings. This research provides valuable insight for how the conventional thinking of the relationship between rainfall rate and lightning applies to a tropical cyclone environment.