A correlation of extreme lightning flash rates with a severe multicell storm

On 18 August 2002, a severe multicell storm formed over Huntsville, Alabama, along a mesoscale outflow boundary between 2020 and 2230 UTC. During the storm's two-hour lifecycle, radar data indicated little movement of the storm over the area. At 2117 UTC, the storm produced a microburst with a recorded wind gust of 34 m s-1. In addition, the storm produced damaging winds, small hail, and localized flooding.; Over its lifetime, the storm achieved maximum echo tops of nearly 18 km and produced 12755 flashes of which only 265 (2%) were cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes. The peak CG rate of 6.8 flashes per minute occurred near the time of the microburst, while the peak total rate of 5.9 flashes per second occurred after the microburst. This storm also experienced several mergers, which coincided with increased flash rates. Though other strong storms also formed in the area, none of them produced such intense flash rates.