TY - JOUR
T1 - Severe convective storms across Europe and the United States. Part I
T2 - Climatology of lightning, large hail, severe wind, and tornadoes
AU - Taszarek, Mateusz
AU - Allen, John T.
AU - Groenemeijer, Pieter
AU - Edwards, Roger
AU - Brooks, Harold E.
AU - Chmielewski, Vanna
AU - Enno, Sven Erik
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments. This research was supported by grants from the Polish National Science Centre (2017/27/B/ST10/00297) and the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange–The Bekker Programme (PPN/BEK/2018/1/00199). J. T. Allen acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under Grant AGS-1945286. Groenemeijer was supported by Grant 01LP1525A1 (ARCS) from the German Ministry for Research and Education. We are grateful to the United Kingdom Met Office and NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory for providing lightning data. The European Severe Storms Laboratory and the Storm Prediction Center are gratefully acknowledged for providing severe weather reports.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Meteorological Society
PY - 2020/11/3
Y1 - 2020/11/3
N2 - As lightning-detection records lengthen and the efficiency of severe weather reporting increases, more accurate climatologies of convective hazards can be constructed. In this study we aggregate flashes from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and Arrival Time Difference long-range lightning detection network (ATDnet) with severe weather reports from the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD) and Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Storm Data on a common grid of 0.258 and 1-h steps. Each year approximately 75–200 thunderstorm hours occur over the southwestern, central, and eastern United States, with a peak over Florida (200–250 h). The activity over the majority of Europe ranges from 15 to 100 h, with peaks over Italy and mountains (Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians, Dinaric Alps; 100–150 h). The highest convective activity over continental Europe occurs during summer and over the Mediterranean during autumn. The United States peak for tornadoes and large hail reports is in spring, preceding the maximum of lightning and severe wind reports by 1–2 months. Convective hazards occur typically in the late afternoon, with the exception of the Midwest and Great Plains, where mesoscale convective systems shift the peak lightning threat to the night. The severe wind threat is delayed by 1–2 h compared to hail and tornadoes. The fraction of nocturnal lightning over land ranges from 15% to 30% with the lowest values observed over Florida and mountains (;10%). Wintertime lightning shares the highest fraction of severe weather. Compared to Europe, extreme events are considerably more frequent over the United States, with maximum activity over the Great Plains. However, the threat over Europe should not be underestimated, as severe weather outbreaks with damaging winds, very large hail, and significant tornadoes occasionally occur over densely populated areas.
AB - As lightning-detection records lengthen and the efficiency of severe weather reporting increases, more accurate climatologies of convective hazards can be constructed. In this study we aggregate flashes from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and Arrival Time Difference long-range lightning detection network (ATDnet) with severe weather reports from the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD) and Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Storm Data on a common grid of 0.258 and 1-h steps. Each year approximately 75–200 thunderstorm hours occur over the southwestern, central, and eastern United States, with a peak over Florida (200–250 h). The activity over the majority of Europe ranges from 15 to 100 h, with peaks over Italy and mountains (Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians, Dinaric Alps; 100–150 h). The highest convective activity over continental Europe occurs during summer and over the Mediterranean during autumn. The United States peak for tornadoes and large hail reports is in spring, preceding the maximum of lightning and severe wind reports by 1–2 months. Convective hazards occur typically in the late afternoon, with the exception of the Midwest and Great Plains, where mesoscale convective systems shift the peak lightning threat to the night. The severe wind threat is delayed by 1–2 h compared to hail and tornadoes. The fraction of nocturnal lightning over land ranges from 15% to 30% with the lowest values observed over Florida and mountains (;10%). Wintertime lightning shares the highest fraction of severe weather. Compared to Europe, extreme events are considerably more frequent over the United States, with maximum activity over the Great Plains. However, the threat over Europe should not be underestimated, as severe weather outbreaks with damaging winds, very large hail, and significant tornadoes occasionally occur over densely populated areas.
KW - Climatology
KW - Convective storms
KW - Hail
KW - Lightning
KW - Seasonal cycle
KW - Tornadoes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096897964&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0345.1
DO - 10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0345.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096897964
VL - 33
SP - 10239
EP - 10261
JO - Journal of Climate
JF - Journal of Climate
SN - 0894-8755
IS - 23
ER -