4.3
Modernized Lemon Technique using WSR-88D Data
John B. McLaughlin, KCCI-TV, Des Moines, IA
In 1977, Leslie R. Lemon, a meteorologist for the Techniques Development Unit of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, authored the paper "Severe Thunderstorm Evolution: Its Use In a New Technique for Radar Warnings." The article appeared in the Preprint Volume of the American Meteorological Society Tenth Conference on Severe Local Storms and outlined how the WSR-57 radar could be used operationally in the issuance of Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado warnings. Building on research conducted on supercell storms in the 1960s and early 1970s, Lemon outlined critieria for using a radar antenna tilt sequence in the identification of the weak echo region (WER) and the bounded weak echo region (BWER) present in the reflectivity structure of severe storms. This procedure informally became known as the Lemon Technique and was widely used among National Weather Service meteorologists.
With the advent of the WSR-88D radar network, velocity data, and computer generated algorithms based on volume scan data, is there still a place in the world of radar meteorology for the Lemon Technique? In this presentation, we will revisit Lemon's work and apply the technique to severe storm identification using data from the WSR-88D radar as displayed on equipment widely used in the broadcast industry. .
Session 4, Present Issues, Ideas, Systems and Products in Broadcast Meteorology: Part II
Wednesday, 26 June 2002, 2:30 PM-4:45 PM
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