Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena
In this study, we use World Wide Lightning Location Network data and investigate properties of more than 90 000 lightning strokes which hit northern Europe during an unusually stormy winter in 2014/15. Thunderstorm days with at least two strokes hitting an area of 0.5 ∘ × 0.5 ∘ occurred 5–13 times p...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c8f7618d96724468adb4eb9c0c70b449 2023-05-15T17:32:02+02:00 Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena I. Kolmašová O. Santolík K. Rosická 2022-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022 https://doaj.org/article/c8f7618d96724468adb4eb9c0c70b449 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/3379/2022/acp-22-3379-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://doaj.org/article/c8f7618d96724468adb4eb9c0c70b449 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 22, Pp 3379-3389 (2022) Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022 2022-12-31T16:11:47Z In this study, we use World Wide Lightning Location Network data and investigate properties of more than 90 000 lightning strokes which hit northern Europe during an unusually stormy winter in 2014/15. Thunderstorm days with at least two strokes hitting an area of 0.5 ∘ × 0.5 ∘ occurred 5–13 times per month in the stormiest regions. Such frequency of thunderstorm days is about 5 times higher than the mean annual number calculated for the same region over winter months in 2008–2017. The number of individual winter lightning strokes was about 4 times larger than the long-term median calculated over the last decade. In the colder months of December, January and February, the mean energy of detected strokes was 2 orders of magnitude larger than the global mean stroke energy of 1 kJ . We show for the first time that winter superbolts with radiated electromagnetic energies above 1 MJ appeared at night and in the morning hours, while the diurnal distribution of all detected lightning was nearly uniform. We also show that the superbolts were often single stroke flashes and that their subsequent strokes never reached megajoule energies. The lightning strokes were concentrated above the ocean close to the western coastal areas. All these lightning characteristics presume anomalously efficient winter thundercloud charging in the eastern North Atlantic, especially at the sea–land boundary. We found that the resulting unusual production of lightning could not be explained solely by an anomalously warm sea surface caused by a positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation and by a starting super El Niño event. Increased updraft strengths, which are believed to accompany the cold-to-warm transition phase of El Niño, might have acted as another charging driver. We speculate that a combination of both these large-scale climatic events might have been needed to produce the observed enormous amount of winter lightning in winter 2014/15. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 22 5 3379 3389 |
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Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 I. Kolmašová O. Santolík K. Rosická Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena |
topic_facet |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
description |
In this study, we use World Wide Lightning Location Network data and investigate properties of more than 90 000 lightning strokes which hit northern Europe during an unusually stormy winter in 2014/15. Thunderstorm days with at least two strokes hitting an area of 0.5 ∘ × 0.5 ∘ occurred 5–13 times per month in the stormiest regions. Such frequency of thunderstorm days is about 5 times higher than the mean annual number calculated for the same region over winter months in 2008–2017. The number of individual winter lightning strokes was about 4 times larger than the long-term median calculated over the last decade. In the colder months of December, January and February, the mean energy of detected strokes was 2 orders of magnitude larger than the global mean stroke energy of 1 kJ . We show for the first time that winter superbolts with radiated electromagnetic energies above 1 MJ appeared at night and in the morning hours, while the diurnal distribution of all detected lightning was nearly uniform. We also show that the superbolts were often single stroke flashes and that their subsequent strokes never reached megajoule energies. The lightning strokes were concentrated above the ocean close to the western coastal areas. All these lightning characteristics presume anomalously efficient winter thundercloud charging in the eastern North Atlantic, especially at the sea–land boundary. We found that the resulting unusual production of lightning could not be explained solely by an anomalously warm sea surface caused by a positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation and by a starting super El Niño event. Increased updraft strengths, which are believed to accompany the cold-to-warm transition phase of El Niño, might have acted as another charging driver. We speculate that a combination of both these large-scale climatic events might have been needed to produce the observed enormous amount of winter lightning in winter 2014/15. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
I. Kolmašová O. Santolík K. Rosická |
author_facet |
I. Kolmašová O. Santolík K. Rosická |
author_sort |
I. Kolmašová |
title |
Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena |
title_short |
Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena |
title_full |
Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena |
title_fullStr |
Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lightning activity in northern Europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena |
title_sort |
lightning activity in northern europe during a stormy winter: disruptions of weather patterns originating in global climate phenomena |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022 https://doaj.org/article/c8f7618d96724468adb4eb9c0c70b449 |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 22, Pp 3379-3389 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/3379/2022/acp-22-3379-2022.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://doaj.org/article/c8f7618d96724468adb4eb9c0c70b449 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3379-2022 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
3379 |
op_container_end_page |
3389 |
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1766129942673752064 |