Articles | Volume 3, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-361-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-361-2022
Research article
 | 
31 Mar 2022
Research article |  | 31 Mar 2022

Differentiating lightning in winter and summer with characteristics of the wind field and mass field

Deborah Morgenstern, Isabell Stucke, Thorsten Simon, Georg J. Mayr, and Achim Zeileis

Data sets

Differentiating lightning in winter and summer with characteristics of wind field and mass field: supplementary material D. Morgenstern, I. Stucke, T. Simon, G. J. Mayr, and A. Zeileis https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5851700

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1979 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, G. Biavati, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, I. Rozum, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, D., Dee, and J.-N. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1979 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, G. Biavati, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, I. Rozum, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, D., Dee, and J.-N. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Model code and software

CDO User Guide U. Schulzweida https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3539275

Network Common Data Form (netCDF) Unidata https://doi.org/10.5065/D6H70CW6

ncdf4: Interface to Unidata netCDF (Version 4 or Earlier) Format Data Files D. Pierce https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ncdf4

Simple Features for R: Standardized Support for Spatial Vector Data (https://r-spatial.github.io/sf/index.html) E. Pebesma https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2018-009

stars: Spatiotemporal Arrays, Raster and Vector Data Cubes E. Pebesma https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=stars

rnaturalearth: World Map Data from Natural Earth A. South https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rnaturalearth

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Short summary
Wintertime lightning in central Europe is rare but has a large damage potential for tall structures such as wind turbines. We use a data-driven approach to explain why it even occurs when the meteorological processes causing thunderstorms in summer are absent. In summer, with strong solar input, thunderclouds have a large vertical extent, whereas in winter, thunderclouds are shallower in the vertical but tilted and elongated in the horizontal by strong winds that increase with altitude.