CIMMS’ Alex Fierro attended the 32nd Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology in San Juan, Puerto Rico this month.
During the week, Fierro gave a presentation on hurricane electrification as part of a session on numerical modeling. The presentation, entitled “Explicit Electrification and Lightning in a 350 m WRF-ARW Simulation of Hurricane Isaac (2012)” was a collaborative effort with Edward Mansell, Don MacGorman, and Conrad Ziegler, all federal research scientists with NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory. The objective of their work was to provide a more physically sound assessment of the lightning threat in current Numerical Weather Prediction models. An examination of a case study focused on Hurricane Isaac using the WRF-ARW showed that the model tended to produce deeper storms with larger-than-observed lightning activity, and revealed lightning patterns consistent with storm motion. Overall, results showed realistic space charge structure, flash rates, and lightning patterns.
The 32nd Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology was organized and sponsored by the American Meteorological Society. The 2016 conference was held at the Hilton Condado in San Juan from April 17 through April 22.