CICS outreach efforts involving the Washington D.C. Lightning Mapping Array

Several recent outreach projects have helped improve the visibility of the Washington D.C. Lightning Mapping Array (DCLMA) and demonstrate its value for severe weather analysis and public outreach. This paper describes two recent outreach efforts that 1) promote the use of lightning information by National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters and 2) inform the public on the value of total lightning information. Since the Sterling, VA Weather Forecast Office (WFO) is one of the few NWS offices with real-time access to total lightning information, it provides an ideal location to investigate the utility of total lightning datasets. We first describe collaborative efforts with the Sterling WFO to help train NWS forecasters on the use of total lightning information during warning operations. We then discuss several significant severe weather events in the D.C. region during summer 2012 that also provided an opportunity to collaborate with the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang (CWG) to demonstrate the benefits of total lightning information to a diverse audience.