NOAA News NOAA Home Page Previous Story May 23, 2000

STORMS IN THE HIGH PLAINS HIDE FROM NOAA SCIENTISTS

June 9, 2000 — An ambitious atmospheric research project is well underway in the tri-state region of Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. The study is known by its acronym, STEPS, which stands for "Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study." It is a partnership between NOAA scientists, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and numerous Universities.

The scientists are scanning the skies over the High Plains in order to better understand the dynamics of electrification and precipitation in severe thunderstorms. They hope that their research will lead to more accurate forecasts and timelier severe weather warnings. (Click image for larger view.)

The researchers have encountered one major problem so far: an unusual lack of thunderstorm activity. In fact, the skies over the Goodland, Kansas, operations center have been so docile that the study is being jokingly referred to as STEPSS, the "Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Suppression Study."

Click images for larger view.

Researchers prepare to remove tarp from weather measuring instrument.
Researchers position weather instrument for deployment.
Weather measuring instrument is launched.
Joint Mobile Research lab and researchers keep tabs on deployed weather instrument.

There are many meteorological theories for why the thunderstorms are avoiding the STEPS domain, such as the position of the Jet Stream and the lack of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. If you ask residents of Goodland, however, they will tell you that the real reason for the dearth of thunderstorms lies with the armada of NOAA weather researchers that have descended on their community.

Just like the hapless person seen carrying an umbrella on a sunny day, the very presence of the NOAA research team seems to be suppressing thunderstorm activity.

Perhaps the thunderstorms are running scared. The thunderstorms know that if they show up, they will be probed and analyzed like never before. They will be dissected in 3-D by a network of specially designed radars. Sophisticated weather balloons and research aircraft will penetrate them. They will be watched and analyzed by researchers in mobile "Mesonet" vehicles.

The thunderstorms know that if they rear their anvil heads high into the atmosphere over this region, the jig will be up. Their mysterious ways of dropping small amounts of rain mixed with pounding hail, and flashing positively charged lightning instead of negatively charged bolts would no longer be meteorological conundrums. The storms know that NOAA and its partners are poised with the tools and the know-how to decode the eccentricities of "Low Precipitation Supercells" (LP's in weather-speak). NOAA is after their secrets, and they are reluctant to give them up.

Despite their infrequent appearances, the storms have not been entirely successful in avoiding the skilled researchers. Two complete data sets have been gathered from thunderstorms since May 25th. Although these were not the strongest storms, they have yielded tantalizing clues into the dynamics of storms on the High Plains.

NOAA scientist David Rust, along with colleague Don MacGorman, and a team of atmospheric science students, is trying to decipher the complex electrification processes of thunderstorms by launching specially equipped balloons into the storms.

Rust and his team have succeeded on two separate occasions since the project began in late May. On May 31st his team battled fierce downburst winds to launch a balloon into the upper reaches of a thunderstorm near Cheyenne Wells, Kansas. The data collected by that balloon forms a blueprint of the electric field inside the storm. "This data should allow us to get a better idea of how the storms produce lightning," MacGorman said.

A few days after that successful storm intercept a low precipitation thunderstorm erupted in the northern portion of the STEPS region. Rust and his team quickly set up position and launched two balloons into the storm. Mobile Mesonet vehicles of the University of Oklahoma and NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory gathered data on the ground. Overhead, a T-28 aircraft from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology penetrated the storm and recorded data on everything from electric field to the size and type of frozen particles in the storm. The storm was also caught on tape by a network of radars, providing a 3-dimensional view of the thunderstorm.

All this data represents the most comprehensive data set ever gathered on a low precipitation thunderstorm.

While NOAA researchers are hoping for more inclement weather in the near future, they are taking advantage of every opportunity to fill in the gaps of meteorological knowledge. As Rust put it, "This weather is tough, but we have taken advantage of every opportunity and have retrieved some valuable data. So far it has been a success."

Stay tuned for further updates as the STEPS project continues throughout the spring and summer.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA's Severe Storms Lab, Norman, Okla.

Joint Mobile Research Facility

NOAA's National Weather Service — Goodland, Kansas, Forecast Office

All About Lightning

Questions and Answers About Thunderstorms

Media Contact:
Keli Tarp, NOAA's National Severe Storms Lab and NOAA Weather Partners, Norman, Okla., (405) 366-0451.

 

 

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