An Investigation of Lightning Behavior During the QLCS in Northwestern Texas on March 18 & 19

Between late Sunday, March 18 and early Monday, March 19 a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) developed as a cold front intersected a retreating dryline in the Texas panhandle. Several vortices developed, one of which was a possible tornado near Reese Center in Lubbock, TX. An investigation of the lightning characteristics of the part of the line that developed that particular spin up will be presented, including charge structure, polarity, and flash size/rate from the West-Texas Lightning Mapping Array (WTLMA) data. Previous studies suggest that lightning data will reveal a normal tripolar charge structure within the updraft, longer IC flashes in the stratiform and anvil regions, and flash initiation concentrated along the center line of the deep convective cores. The electrical structure is compared with time-evolving storm properties indicated by West Texas Mesonet (WTM), the Lubbock WSR-88D radar, and the SCOUT field project StickNet and Ka-Band radar data sets. A full analysis of this part of the storm will be done in hopes of gaining further understanding in the connection between meteorological characteristics and lightning behavior within QLCS.