The Severe Hazards Analysis and Verification Experiment

During the springs and summers of 2006 through 2008, scientists from the National Severe Storms Laboratory and students from the University of Oklahoma have conducted an enhanced severe-storm verification effort. The primary goal for the Severe Hazards Analysis and Verification Experiment (SHAVE) was the remote collection of high spatial and temporal resolution hail, wind (or wind damage), and flash-flooding reports from severe thunderstorms. This dataset has a much higher temporal and spatial resolution than the traditional storm reports collected by the National Weather Service and published in Storm Data (tens of square kilometers and 1–5 min versus thousands of square kilometers and 30–60 min) and also includes reports of nonsevere storms that are not included in Storm Data. The high resolution of the dataset makes it useful for validating high-resolution, gridded warning guidance applications. SHAVE is unique not only for the type of data collected and the resolution of that data but also for how the data are collected. The daily operations of the project are largely student led and run. To complete the remote, high-resolution verification, the students use Google Earth to display experimental weather data and geographic information databases, such as digital phonebooks. Using these data, the students then make verification phone calls to residences and businesses, throughout the United States, thought to have been affected by a severe thunderstorm. The present article summarizes the data collection facilities and techniques, discusses applications of these data, and shows comparisons of SHAVE reports to reports currently available from Storm Data.