1.2 million lightning discharges in summer in Austria – Austria
The summer of 2022 brought 1.2 million lightning discharges in Austria. There were a lot of thunderstorms in June, but in midsummer there was less lightning than usual.
According to the weather experts of the Austrian Severe Weather Center, the very lightning-rich June was responsible for a balanced final balance, as significantly fewer lightning bolts than usual were recorded in July and August.
Styria was the federal state with the most flashes
The federal state with the most lightning was Styria, but the districts with the highest lightning density are in Upper Austria. From June 1st to August 31st, the LINET lightning detection system registered exactly 1,214,179 lightning bolts (cloud and ground lightning) distributed throughout Austria. “So this year’s summer is in the midfield of the past 10 years,” says Manfred Spatzierer, chief meteorologist at the storm center.
Significantly more lightning in summer 2017 in Austria
Most recently, significantly more lightning strikes were recorded in the summer of 2017 with 1.8 million discharges, but significantly fewer in the summer of 2015 with 625,000 discharges.
At the federal state level, in the summer of 2022, the traditionally most lightning-rich state of Styria was again in first place with 334,000 discharges. Styria is thus taking back the crown from Upper Austria, which was in first place in summer 2021.
Upper Austria at the district level at the top
However, Upper Austria is at the top at the district level: “The district with the highest lightning density was Kirchdorf an der Krems with around 43 flashes per square kilometer, followed by Freistadt and Murau with 32 flashes per square kilometer,” explains Spatzierer. The municipality with the highest lightning density was Windischgarsten with 75 lightning strikes/m².
Extremely lightning June
On a long-term average, the months of July and August have the most lightning of the year in Austria, but this year the classic high season brought significantly less lightning than usual. “Especially the early season in May and June was more lightning than usual this year,” analyzes Nikolas Zimmermann, thunderstorm expert at the Severe Weather Center.
“In June, several south-western locations have thermally strong thunderstorms in the Alpine region, but in midsummer the air was often too dry due to high pressure areas over western and northern Europe”. With 771,000 discharges, even more lightning bolts were recorded in June than in July and August combined. Lightning flashes most frequently in Styria, in Upper and Lower Austria and in Carinthia.
Multiple hailstorms
Large hailstorms also occurred several times, for example locally in the Kaiserwinkl, in the Traunviertel or in Lower Carinthia. June 5th, when up to 10 cm hail was observed between Kufstein and Ellmau, and June 28th, when an almost stationary thunderstorm in the Villach-Land district brought extreme amounts of rain. With gusts of up to 129 km/h and a total of 145 mm of rain, two records were set in Arriach within just 24 hours. Also in Villach there was a new summer record with 120 mm.
Below average few lightning bolts in July
The thunderstorm season suddenly reached its peak in July, but this year the foothills of the Azores high brought repeated air masses to Austria. “With 294,500 discharges, we only detected 65% of the usual lightning bolts,” says Zimmermann.
There were particularly few thunderstorms in July in the eastern lowlands, for example in Vienna, only 160 lightning bolts were recorded. The combination of a dry spring and the absence of summer thunderstorms also meant that the level of Lake Neusiedl finally undercut the previous negative record from 2003 on July 18 (level data since 1965). However, there were a few strong thunderstorms in the Alps, such as on July 22 in Tyrol, when there were severe mudslides in the Stubaital.
Few lightning bolts in August
Intermittent high pressure and the regional drought led to severely below-average thunderstorm activity in August. With a total of only 149,185 discharges, there were less than half the usual number of flashes. In Styria, which is otherwise very prone to thunderstorms, only 38% of the average was reached with 42,600 discharges, only in August 2015 were fewer lightning bolts detected. Although August brought fewer thunderstorms than usual, there were still severe storms. August 18 is particularly memorable, when a line of thunderstorms with sometimes hurricane-like gusts passed over Lower Carinthia and Styria. New records were set at several stations, such as in Neumarkt, Mooslandl, Leoben, Kapfenberg and St. Andrä. In contrast, there were almost no reports of large hail in July and August.
Strongest lightning in the district of Melk
The power of lightning IS indicated by the current in the unit ampere. The strongest lightning in the country was measured in Lower Austria in the district of Melk: “The leader is a discharge of around 427,000 amps on August 26 in the community of Dunkelsteinerwald,” says Spatzierer. “In a very short time, around 26,000 times more energy was released than is available in a standard 16 ampere socket.”