Crucial Roles of Eastward Propagating Environments in the Summer MCS Initiation Over the U.S. Great Plains

This study aims to further understand the environments supporting summer mesoscale convective system (MCS) initiation in the U.S. Great Plains. A self‐organizing map analysis is conducted to identify four types of summer MCS initiation environments during 2004–2017: Type‐1 and Type‐2 feature favorable large‐scale environments, Type‐3 has favorable lower‐level and surface conditions but unfavorable upper‐level circulation, while Type‐4 features...