Severe HAil Verification Experiment (SHAVE 2006)

Operations Plan

Introduction

Facilities

Data Collection Team Duties

Daily Activities

Data Collection Strategies

Survey Information

Staff Logistics (internal)

Data

Data Collection Strategies

Selecting a storm

The project manager will maintain a database of storm types that have been collected during the project. We desire to collect a diverse dataset of storm types in varying environmental conditions. Some variations may include:

• supercells
• splitting supercells, especially left-moving supercells
• quasi-linear convective systems
• "pulse" thunderstorms that form in a high-CAPE low-vertical-wind-shear environment
• storms that form in cold-core upper air systems
• [what else?]

This experiment is blind with regard to whether or not a a Severe Thunderstorm Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for a particular storm - we will sample both warned and unwarned storms. Data will be made available to those NWS offices that desire to examine the data in real-time. We would encourage those NWS offices that do utilize our data feed, however, to continue to collect information from their own storm spotter networks as per their normal operations. There is no guarantee that SHAVE will sample storms in a given NWS County Warning Area on a particular day, and even if we do so it is possible that we will only do so for a short time or may miss something that a regular spotter will see (such as tornado or wind damage which are outside the scope of this project).

Collecting data on a storm

• the OC selects a storm and logs the relevant information about storm type
• the OC will determine a cross-section, usually perpendicular to the storm path, along which targets will be called. They will monitor this cross section to ensure that the storm has cleared the area before data collection starts along that line. The phone calls should be made as soon as possible following storm passage, however, in order to minimize the effects of melting and to increase the chance that people will recall the start and finish time of the falling hail.
• the team will coordinate to collect hail information that are spaced approximately 1 km apart along the cross section line, utilizing the hail survey.
• as the storm continues to move, the OC will determine a new cross-section to collect data and the process repeats.

Data collection examples

• Slow-moving supercell
• Fast-moving linear system

Operating over a populated area (utilizing Google Earth Pro)

When storms are over populated areas, the database of business phone numbers available in Google Earth is very useful for correlating potential hail areas with verification targets. In this situation, the OC's job is primarily to determine the storm of interest and to set up cross sections for examination. They will monitor the progress of the team to complete each cross-section and select a new cross-section. Most of the relevant data concerning call history, hail reports, and current cross-section should be available on the Collaboration Display.

Operating over a rural area (utilizing county directories and other sources)

When storms are over rural areas for which county directory information is available, it is more challenging to collect data. The OC or a designated assistant OC will correlate the non-digital or web site sources to a geographic display and may need to hand-write notes to the rest of the team that contain geographic coordinates and phone numbers. The results will still be available on the Collaboration Display, but the team will rely on more centralization to determine where to collect data. It may be necessary to experiment with several different methods of data collection to determine the most optimal configuration.