| Cloud to ground lightning flashes in seven recent hurricanes have been studied using data from The National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN). The strike locations were analyzed and found to support hypotheses correlating eye-wall lightning with hurricane intensity changes. The prior hypotheses were introduced by (Lyons and Keen, 1994) and (Molinari, Moore, and Idone, 1999). The seven hurricanes included in the investigation are: Fran in 1996, Floyd in 1999; Opal in 1995; Lili in 2002, Isabel in 2003, Alex in 2004, and finally Charley, also in 2004. The focus was on inner core lightning so for each hurricane a circular section was defined depending on the storm size. Hurricanes were chosen that had variations of intensity within the range of the NLDN, and were analyzed both before and after landfall.; The results correlated well with the prior investigations done by Molinari et al., and Lyons et al. Findings also concurred that it is the degree of intensity changes in the hurricane that was associated with lightning, not necessarily hurricane strength. |
