Applications for a CONUS-wide Multi-Radar, Multi-Sensor Database

The National Severe Storms Laboratory and the National Climatic Data Center have been partnered for the past two years in an effort to reprocess all of the WSR-88D Level-II radar data archive through the Warning Decision Support System—Integrated Information (WDSS-II) software suite to produce Multi-Radar, Multi-Sensor (MRMS) 3D reflectivity, derived products (such as VIL) and azimuthal shear grids over the entire CONUS. This data set is called the Multi-Year Reanalysis of Remotely Sensed Storms (MYRORSS). Quality control efforts are ongoing for the years already processed (2000 through 2011). The availability of these grids makes new severe storm climatologies, severe storm environmental analyses and NWP forecast verifications possible. This presentation will discuss conceptual ideas for these new analyses: 1) using a hail size estimate from the 3D reflectivity grids and near-storm environment data to produce a hail climatology for the CONUS; 2) evaluating hail threat potential of an environment using the areas of the hail size estimate produced, rather than reports of hail; 3) evaluating the skill and usefulness of storm-scale model forecasts by comparing the attributes of the observed and forecasted storms, rather using storm reports to evaluate skill. Further applications and an update on MYRORSS processing, quality control and data availability will be discussed.