Sunday, 22 January 2012
Total Lightning Trends of A SEVERE, Shuttle Damaging Hail STORM In CAPE Canaveral, FL
Hall E (New Orleans Convention Center )
Hail damage is one of the greatest contributors to severe weather damage in the United States. Through extensive case study analysis, we can investigate ways to prevent such damage by understanding the interrelationships between charge formation and hail occurrence at the surface. On Febrauary 26, 2007, the Cape Canaveral, FL, area experienced a supercell storm producing wind gusts up to 62 mph and golf ball sized hailstones. The hail carved an estimated 7,000 divots in the foam insulation of the ship's external fuel tank and damaged 27 heat resistant tiles on the left wing of the Atlantis space shuttle (Sun sentinel, Feb. 28). This study will analyze the storm's development using not only the Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) network data but also WSR-88D Radar scans. The data will be analyzed using the Warning Decision Support System-Integrated Information (WDSS-II) program. By tracking the development of different storm parameters, we can temporally track specific parameters through the storm's growth and decay to discern any existing relationships.
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