Lightning characteristics and associated microphysical parameters in a strong thunderstorm with an extreme gale

Influenced by the Northeast China cold vortex, Jiangsu Province experienced strong thunderstorm and gale weather on April 30, 2021, which caused 17 deaths and direct economic losses of 164 million yuan. In particular, a rare extreme gale of 47.9 m s− 1 occurred in the Tongzhou Bay area. To gain insights into the mechanisms of the discharge and lightning activity in the thunderstorm, the lightning characteristics during the evolution of the storm and their relationship with microphysical parameters are analyzed using the satellite-based and ground-based lightning detection data and dual-polarization Doppler weather radar data. The results show that the extreme gale occurred during the weakening stage of lightning activity and was located between the bow echo and gust front, where the lightning activity was scarce. The intracloud (IC) lightning flashes always played a major role throughout the development, maturation and weakening of the storm, with an average percentage of approximately 80.0%. During the 30 min before the extreme gale, the average percentage of the IC lightning flashes was 83.6%. The proportions of the positive total lightning flashes and positive IC lightning flashes were large, whereas the proportion of the positive cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes remained small (5.5% on average). Additionally, four lightning jumps passing the 2σ threshold test occurred during this strong storm. The total lightning jump appeared approximately 34 min before the extreme gale. When lightning jumps are considered as a strong weather warning indicator, the total lightning jump has advantages over the CG and IC flashes in terms of accuracy and timeliness. The Linear fitting indicates that the volume of ice-phase precipitation particles at or above the altitude of the − 10 °C isotherm, with radar reflectivity above 35dBZ, is the best indicator of the CG and total lightning activities, and the correlation coefficients of it with the CG and total flash rates are 0.77 and 0.67, respectively.