A Low Precipitation Supercell over the Southeast US: A Case Study

Abstract

On 28 March 1997 a low precipitation supercell storm was observed 125 km east of Memphis, TN. The storm exhibited a visual appearance similar to that of Great Plains low precipitation (LP) supercells while it was being video typed for 35 min. beginning at 2335 UTC. While the storm produced hailstones up to 4.5 cm in diameter, and had a 4 hour lifetime, tornadoes were absent. However, over 20 tornadoes were produced in Kentucky and Tennessee (TN) by other thunderstorms during that afternoon and evening. The purpose of this paper is to document this LP supercell that occurred in the Southeastern US. To the authors' knowledge an LP storm has not yet been documented in the Southeastern US. This paper presents a detailed overview of the LP supercell, including synoptic conditions, radar observations, lightning data and visual observations of the storm