Weatherzone sees more lightning across Australia
Ben Domensino,
Friday August 26, 2016 - 11:46 AEST
Weatherzone's national Total Lightning Network detects how dangerous thunderstorms are at any given moment across Australia.
During a thunderstorm, approximately 20 percent of lightning strikes reach the ground and the rest occur within the cloud. Monitoring the total number of strikes (both in-cloud and cloud-to-ground) allows us to better understand how dangerous storms are in real time.
The same technology used by Weatherzone in Australia picked up a severe thunderstorm in southern France last week, which caused major transport delays and derailed a train.
The crash occurred between Montepellier and Nimes when a passenger train carrying over 200 people hit a tree while travelling at 140km/h. Around 60 passengers were injured in the crash, one critically after being thrown from the carriage.
Lightning sensors in the area operated by Earth Networks picked up close to 17,000 strikes during the storm and passengers reported seeing ping-pong ball-sized hail at the time of the crash.
By adding more sensors to our Total Lightning Network, we will have a better idea of how intense storms are and what you can expect to see if one is headed your way this storm season.
- Weatherzone
© Weatherzone
2016