Analysis of Lightning Climatology for Central Europe

A lightning climatology covering 16 years based on ground measurements is presented and discussed. Instead of the lightning density, the focus lies on the analysis and interpretation of mean Amperages per thunderstorm. This enables to identify regions with a particularly high risk of strong thunderstorms. In autumn the Nort-Sea and the Po valley is characterized by few but very strong thunderstorms. During the convective the number density of thunderstorms increases significantly over land. The Alpine region is by far most affected by strong thunderstorms, whereby the severity of the thunderstorms is on average much higher in the southern (Po Valley) than in the northern foothils. Also some regions along the western and eastern border of Germany are on average affected by very strong thunderstorms. The patterns form some sort of a U-shape, which results from the lifting of incoming moist air from the west or east by the orography. The analysis reveals that the mean amperage could be a good candidate for the estimation of risks induced by strong hail events.