Lightning strike density for the contiguous United States from thunderstorm duration records

Abstract

An improved lightning ground strike climatology has been obtained from thunderstorm duration data recorded by 450 air weather stations. From lightning strike location data collected in Florida and Oklahoma, it was found that strike density could be estimated from thunderstorm duration by the equation N/sub s/ = 0.054H/sup 1/ /sup 1/, where N/sub s/ is the number of strikes per square kilometer and H is thunderstorm duration in hours. This relationship was applied to thunderstorm duration data from the aviation stations to obtain lightning strike density for the contiguous United States.