An examination of radar and lightning characteristics of the “Atlanta Tornado” of March 14-15, 2008

A pair of large isolated thunderstorms passed through the Atlanta metropolitan area during the night of March 14-15, 2008. The first storm became tornadic shortly before traversing the center of Atlanta. This isolated, severe storm continued through the heart of downtown Atlanta, causing major damage and resulting in one fatality. A second, similar, nontornadic storm passed just south of the Atlanta area a few hours later.

In this study, the general synoptic situation, NEXRAD radar data and National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) cloud to ground lightning data, including flash rate, polarity, and stroke multiplicity, are analyzed and examined for both the tornadic and non-tornadic cells.