The characteristics of cloud-to-ground lightning activity in hailstorms over northern China

The characteristics of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning for ten hailstorms in Shandong Province of China were analyzed statistically. It is found that the hailstorms in this study present dominant positive CG flashes during periods of falling hail. One specific hailstorm on 16 June 2006 was studied in detail using the data from a CG lightning location network, Doppler radar and cloud images. Comparison between the brightness temperature of cloud-top and CG flash locations indicated that most flashes occurred in the region with temperatures lower than − 40 °C, while dense positive CG flashes occurred in the range between − 40 °C and − 50 °C. Negative CG flashes occurred mostly in the relative weak radar echo region, and positive CG flashes were distributed in the strong echo region especially with a large gradient of echo intensity. CG flashes tended to occur in the cloud region with reflectivity between 25 dBZ and 35 dBZ. Comparison between the wind field retrieved from Doppler radar and the location of CG flashes indicated that the flashes were located in the convergent region at lower to middle levels.