| cieldumort |
| (Moderator) |
| Sun Sep 01 2019 11:08 PM |
|
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Dorian Grand Bahama Island
|
Quote:
Port Nassau webcam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_GoTxJf-g
It's south of Dorian by a fair amount, but will probably stay up.Quote:
The camera is, of course, showing a ton of lightning. I saw a met blog...of course I lost the link because with social media, everybody is tweeting but he remarked that the amount of lightning on the leading edge of the eyewall is extreme to what is normal. Is this from the storm being so compact/its weather being compact or another reason?
Port Nassau is in the outer bands, not the eywall. Lightning (and sometimes tornadoes) is fairly common in the outer bands of tropical cyclones.
What is remarkable about Dorian, is the intense, persistent lightning today into tonight in the entire eyewall.
Hurricane lightning science is still in its infancy, and much work is being done to understand it better. It does tell a story, and can be very useful, where understood. Often, lightning in the eyewall at the expense of lightning in the outer bands can be an indication of strengthening - often from tropical storm into a hurricane - but we are not seeing that here. Here, we have blasts of lightning in both the outer banding and the eyewall. Truly impressive.
Edit to add that it does appear that it could be an indication of an ERC underway. Studies have shown this. In watching TWC right now, Dr. Knabb stated that he believes this could be the case here, as well.