Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts Hard at Work in Brazil this Week
Earth Networks weather stations sent out numerous Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts (DTAs) on 13 December 2015 to warn residents of impending storm cells consisting of high winds, heavy rain, and large amounts of lightning.
These storms cells swept through the eastern region of Sao Paulo all day on Saturday, with the strongest lightning storms making their way across the region during the afternoon hours, with cells reaching as far east as the state of Rio de Janeiro.
The below video shows Earth Networks’ exclusive DTAs being issued all throughout the afternoon and moving with the storms. DTAs provide the most advanced alerting to severe weather and the purple polygons represent the DTAs. Approximately 30 DTAs went out during 12 December alone.
This next video shows the progression of Total Lightning throughout the region during the same time frame. The yellow lightning icons represent cloud-to-ground strikes while the purple lightning icons represent in-cloud lightning, which is a common precursor to severe weather.
Through our comprehensive visualization tool for current and forecast weather, StreamerRTSM, we were able to choose our satellite alternative, PulseRAD out of the 150 layers of real-time weather information and severe weather alerts that we offer. The below shot of PulseRad in the Sao Paulo area on the 12th December shows the lightning cell flash rate and DTA’s, with the strongest cell flash highlighted in red and the weakest highlighted in blue.
As the storms moved out of the region on 13 December, our sensors issued one last DTA (shown below).
The region of Sao Paulo often experiences strong thunderstorms this time of year. Our WeatherBug meteorologists are anticipating continuing evening storms as the week of the 13 December comes to a close.
When severe weather like the storms on 12 December is approaching, it’s important to have the tools to keep your friends and family safe. Our consumer app alerts users to lightning strikes within a ten mile radius and sends notifications to your smart phone when we issue DTA’s.
