A 6-yr Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Climatology and Its Relationship to Rainfall over Central and Eastern China

Abstract

AbstractThe cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning climatology and its relationship to rainfall over central and eastern China is examined, using data from 32 million CG lightning flashes and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission measurements during a 6-yr period covering 2008–13. Results show substantial spatial and temporal variations of flash density across China. Flash counts are the highest (lowest) in summer (winter) with the lowest (highest) proportion of positive flashes. CG lightning over northern China is more active only in summer, whereas in winter CG lightning is more active only in the Yangtze River basin. The highest CG lightning densities, exceeding 9 flashes per kilometer squared per year and more than 70 CG lightning days per year, are found in the northern Pearl River delta region, followed by the Sichuan basin, the Yangtze River delta, and the southeastern coast of China in that order. Lower-flash-density days occur over mountainous regions as a result of the development of short-lived afternoon storms, while higher-flash-density days, typically associated with nocturnal thunderstorms, appear over the north China plain and Sichuan basin. The highest number of CG lightning flashes is found in August whereas monthly convective rainfall peaks in May or July. Flash rates during the warm season are typically maximized in the afternoon hours in coincidence with a convective rainfall peak except for the Sichuan basin and its surrounding mountainous areas where a single late-night convective rainfall peak dominates. Much less lightning activity corresponds to a late-night to morning rainfall peak over the plains in eastern China because of the increased proportion of stratiform rainfall during that period.