Thunderstorm Environments over the Northeastern Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Alaska

Abstract

Results from the present study show that environments from May-October (warm season) that were "lapse rate starved" yielded shallower and weaker updrafts that were not supportive of lightning. In contrast, updraft depth and CAPE were sufficient for vigorous convection from November-April (cool season). However, cool season lightning was mainly confined to environments that possessed warmer boundary layer temperatures, which favored supercooled liquid water and graupel within the CRTZ. In addition, lightning was most probable, during both the warm and cool seasons, when favorable thermodynamic conditions were collocated with the most active portion of the synoptic flow regime. ABSTRACT (Manuscript