A regional lightning climatology of the UK and Ireland and sensitivity to alternative detection networks

Hayward, Leah, Whitworth, Malcolm, Pepin, Nick and Dorling, Stephen (2022) A regional lightning climatology of the UK and Ireland and sensitivity to alternative detection networks. International Journal of Climatology, 42 (15). pp. 7839-7862. ISSN 0899-8418

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Abstract

A total lightning (cloud-ground and cloud-cloud) climatology of the UK and Ireland is presented combining three different ground-based lightning location systems over a 12-year period (2008–2019). The study area is divided into seven geographical regions using k-means clustering to identify areas with distinctive seasonal distributions of lightning flashes per km 2/year (referred to as flash density [FD]). Different regions exhibit contrasting summer thunderstorm seasons (e.g., from April to August in the southeast of England and May to July in southern England coastal regions). Summer FD peaks in July in the English Channel and southeast and midland areas of England range from 0.1 to 0.3 FD whilst the southern England coastal region sees FDs in the range 0.03–0.06 FD. Regions more prone to winter thunderstorms are identified as having northwest facing coastlines (<0.02 FD in Northwest Scotland). Diurnal lightning distributions are also shown to have regional dependence with stronger afternoon peaks over-land (0.05–0.1 FD in the south of England), whilst in the South coastal and English Channel regions early morning or overnight peaks (0.03–0.09 FD) are more pronounced relative to afternoon FDs (0.015–0.03). This study has demonstrated the benefit of using multiple lightning detection networks to mitigate the effects of inhomogeneities within any one data source. It is also shown that significant additional insight comes from taking a regional approach to analysing temporal distributions of lightning.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The lightning data used in this study were kindly provided by Météorage, Weatherquest Ltd, Nowcast GmbH and the Met Office. This study has also been conducted using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	ireland,uk,lightning,lightning flash density,thunderstorm climatology,thunderstorm synoptics,thunderstorms,atmospheric science ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1902
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Water Security Research Centre Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	06 May 2022 03:56
Last Modified:	20 Mar 2023 12:45
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/84884
DOI:	10.1002/joc.7680

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