TORNADOES wreak devastation but are very difficult to predict. On one day in
May last year, 50 tornadoes touched down in Kansas and Oklahoma, killing 40
people and causing $1.2 billion of property damage. But according to NASA
researchers, counting the lightning flashes in storms could give meteorologists
a quick and accurate way to forecast when tornadoes will hit.
Steve Goodman of NASA’s Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville,
Alabama, and colleagues discovered that the number of lightning strikes in a
storm increases tenfold about 20 minutes before a tornado forms, and then falls
off dramatically. “This could help…
