Abstract
If the National Weather Service could forecast the occurrences of cloud-toground lightning strikes, it would benefit the authorities that are served by the WSR-88Ds. In this thesis I will examine the WSR-88D level 11 archive data from Houston, Texas during the spring of 1993 for squall line activity. These data will then be combined with the cloud-to-ground lightning that occurred within the six minutes of the scan time. Three sets of linear correlations will be generated. The first is the correlation of flashes to the dBZ values present during each scan, the second is the correlation of flashes to the dBZ gradients occurring for the scan, and finally the flashes to radial velocity gradient will be correlated. The correlations were always below an average magnitude of 0.300 for all storms studied. This says that the lightning that is occurring for spring Texas squall lines is highly variable in relation to the three factors studied. This supports other research that has been done that suggested that this may be true.
Aclin, Keith Andrew (1995). The use of Doppler radar to predict cloud-to-ground lightning. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1995 -THESIS -A35.