Statistics of Lightning Distribution Over Central Europe on the Various Temporal and Spatial Scales.

A climatology of lightning and storm distribution for Central Europe is presented. It bases on lightning location data for the years 1992-2005. Besides the North-South gradient a strong dependency on meso-scale orography and on the land-sea temperature difference with its seasonal variation is found. For the most parts of the area the annual lightning density is dominated by only a few strongest storms. This results in a fractal structur of the lightning distribution characteristics. The analysis of propagation characteristics of storms such as speed and direction show that more than the half of all storms are closely connected with synoptic front systems. From the lightning data the frequency of 'thunderdays' and 'thunderhours' is derived for any location. These measures are more robust against inhomogeneities and changes in the lightning detection networks. The statistics of the temporal and spatial distribution of lightning over the whole scale range (from the clustering of lightning events up to to storm patterns) is analyzed in a unified way using data from local area and regional ground based networks and global satellite observations.