Two rounds of severe storms rolled through the Huntsville area on August 9, in the mid-afternoon and again during the overnight. The first round had a very small stratiform footprint, but still managed to draw at least two upwards from the 1,510-foot-tall WAFF-TV tower. The second, more complex one is featured at the end of this video and appears to have either connected with its triggering flash or launched negative leaders from the upward positive tree; either of these processes may have caused bipolar continuing current at the tower. This could not be verified with NLDN data.
The nocturnal round of storms produced wind damage and at least one weak tornado in northern Alabama, and drew an additional 12 upward flashes from the TV towers, 11 of these were from the WAFF-TV tower and 2 were from the 944-foot-tall WHNT-TV tower on top of Monte Sano (one flash affected both towers)
NLDN detections:
Flash 1: -23CG, -13IC
Flash 2: -39CG
Flash 3: -29CG, -23CG, -17CG, -9IC
Flash 4: -25CG, -17IC, -15CG
Flash 5: -35CG, -32CG, -25CG, -23CG, -17CG, -8IC (WAFF), -29CG (WHNT)
Flash 6: None
Flash 7: -14IC
Flash 8: -52CG, -38CG, -25CG, -15IC, -7IC
Flash 9: -42CG, -25CG
Flash 10: None
Flash 11: -18CG
Flashes 12 and 13: None
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Video editing done using Shotcut
Lightning information provided by Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) through weather.us/lightning. Note that I only use this information to roughly estimate stroke intensity and distance, the data may be prone to error on my end and my work is not, and should not be considered to be, a formal evaluation of the NLDN's performance.
Thanks to Tom A. Warner and other lightning physicists and researchers who have helped me understand lightning processes explained in my videos. Tom has created a great resource for individuals interested in learning how lightning works.
ztresearch.blog/education/