What is already known:
What this study adds:
Abstract:
While there is considerable knowledge of the global distribution of precipitation, lightning, and severe weather, little is known about the statistics of storm life cycles responsible for these phenomena. Previous studies have used long-term and large-scale data related to severe storms, but never for a survey on the trends of these storms over the CONUS. An objective, long-term study that looks into basic characteristics such as duration, path, speed, or the geographic/diurnal/seasonal variability of storms would shed light on their fundamental trends over the CONUS. A question that may arise is ”why has this type of survey not yet been done?”. This is due to two reasons: 1) lack of a suitable storm tracking algorithm capable of identifying and stitching storms for this type of project, and 2) no single dataset with complete radar composites over a sufficiently long period. With a specific tracking algorithm generated for this project and the availability of storm track data in the MYRORSS (Multi-Year Reanalysis of Remotely Sensed Storms) database, a primary survey was conducted. Storm activity was found to reach its maximum over the Southeastern United States and showed signatures of orographic forcing in the west. Statistical trends showed consistency across seasons in average lifetime and direction of storms, but variation among average speed and spatial expanse.