MCIT storm tracks with updraft radar data for large hail cases in the United States (2013 - 2023)

Storm tracking data from 114 hail days in the United States between 2013 and 2023. Cases were selected based on the availability of abundant Storm Prediction Center (SPC) hail reports (either at least 20 reports of hail > 1 cm or five reports > 10 cm) in a range between 20 and 90 km from a NEXRAD radar site. Only cases in a geographic area from 28-48°N and 105-90°E, roughly corresponding to the U.S. Great Plains, were considered. Cells are quality filtered based on these criteria: (1) Cell center within 120 km of the radar range, and (2) continuous tracking for at least 6 timesteps (approx. 30 minutes, depending on radar scan rate). SPC hail data is matched to tracking timesteps. We used this data to train a Random Forest model for hail size nowcasting.

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