36,000 A.M. Texas Lightning Strikes
A derecho (bow echo)* has just moved off the coast of Texas this morning. It has peppered the eastern part of the state with 36,000 lightning strikes (8,000 positive strokes and 28,000 negative strokes)** in the past two hours alone. Click on the image below to see a larger radar/lightning image that I snapped just now from AccuWeather.com RadarPlus with LightningPlus.
You can see a 10-hour Radar Loop here, showing the formation of the system, which started from some supercell thunderstorms west of San Antonio. Click to zoom in to our East Texas Radar (PREMIUM | PRO) to keep an eye on the system as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico.
2-HOUR LIGHTNING + CURRENT RADAR;
SEE ALSOLIGHTNING STRIKE DETAIL IMAGE
*Derechos, also known as Bow Echos, are long-lived, fast-moving "bowed" lines of thunderstorms which are notorious for wind damage. You can read more about them here.
**There are always more negative lightning strikes (which come from the base of the storm) than positive (which come from the top). NOAA's site says that they average is about 5 percent positive, but unscientific observation of the new lightning network's data (that powers LightningPlus) indicates to me that the percentage is higher. During the last two hours, about 22% of the strikes in the derecho were positive.
Report a Typo
