Characteristics of rainbands, radar echoes, and lightning near the North Carolina coast during GALE

Abstract

The analyses included rainbands of at least 90-km length with lifetimes of at least 2 h. Nearly all of the rainbands were within 400 km of synoptic-scale or coastal fronts. Warm-sector rainbands predominated. Rainbands were classified by the location of their initial detection relative to the land, coastal shelf, and Gulf Stream. Rainbands were initially identified more frequently over the Gulf Stream and less often over the coastal shelf than the corresponding fractional areas monitored by the radars. Statistical tests determined significant differences in the sample means of the MDR and lightning data between the Gulf Stream and land regions that were largely a consequence of many more hours with MDR and lightning over the Gulf Stream. -from Authors