Lightning helps predict hurricane fury
Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 12:35
in Earth & Climate
For the world's most powerful storms, hurricanes have surprisingly little lightning at their core. But a team of researchers found that one cyclone had large spikes in lightning activity occurred near the eye wall 36 hours before its deadly intensification. They attribute the increased lightning to a phenomenon known as "eyewall replacement," one of the many ways hurricanes intensify.