Sferics would have definitely been better, had you been in an airplane.
Sferics are real-time...when there is a discharge, you see it immediately.
NEXRAD, as available today, has a built-in delay of from 4 to 11 minutes.
The folks at the NWS sites can see the results of each antenna rotation
incrementally, but the "whole picture" is made up of many rotations, at
different elevations, and must be massaged before being transmitted to user
ports.

Bob Gardner

"Jose" wrote in message
m...
I just watched a storm develop from just light rain to nasty boomer on the
radar (and pass over my house) in seven minutes, which leads me to wonder
whether, had I been relying on Nexrad for strategic weather avoidance, I
might have flown right into it, and whether sferics would have given me a
better heads-up.

Given a choice, and noting that you usually can get a radar loop before
takeoff, which would you prefer installed in your simgle-engine IFR
bugsmasher? (The choice is between sferics and downloaded Nexrad images) I
wonder if sferics is still the better choice, given it's real time, no
subscription, and lightning is reported to precede rain by significant
time.

Jose
--
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