Lightning and Upper Air Data

Just a couple of quick notes this evening.  First, it's worth a comment that the ALDN reported more than 600 lightning strikes yesterday, which is rather unusual for this late in the season.  Since 2012, only 1.2% of Alaska's lightning has occurred after this date, and only a few days in September have seen over 500 strikes statewide.  Peak lightning season (i.e. 50% of all lightning activity) occurs in a 3-4 week window from about June 20 to mid-July, and August typically sees only 10% of the season's total.

There were two "hot spots" yesterday: just to the north of Fairbanks, and in the Susitna valley:

Very impressive cumulonimbus on northeast side of Fairbanks, about 4pm AKDT Aug 29. Cloud tops ~25k ft. Photo credit M. Richards and shared with permission. #akwx @BorealSciComp @Climatologist49 @powellite pic.twitter.com/O3ouhOAWnB

— Rick Thoman (@AlaskaWx) August 30, 2022

 

On another note, I managed to put together a first draft of a simple page to view recent charts of Alaska sounding data:

http://www.worldagweather.com/sounding/

This is not suitable for mobile viewing, unfortunately, and there may be glitches - if so, please let me know.  It would be nice to make a more interactive page with mouseover for historical records, but that will have to be a project for another time.  In the meantime, the page should update daily.