Topic: Thunderstorms and lightning day v night

[Mike]

Here's something I was pondering tonight whilst watching some out to sea storms:

  When viewing thunderstorms during the day is there just as much electrical activity eminating from the cloud but just can't see it ?  Are the storms more active during the night or is it just a case of when they mature and at what time of day?

You certainly can hear the thunder around the cloud during the daylight hours but can't see anything - anyone care to have a go?

Mike

[Jimmy Deguara]

That is a difficult question to answer given you require some form of scale to compare night and day. And what if the storms are weakening or strengthening during the evening. Perhaps take a statistical average? Sometimes storms also change their characteristics such as merge into a mesoscale convective system or complex. This would have an overwhelming effect on the storms electrical behaviour. The other component is that the storm could move so your perspective of the storm changes create a perception that the storm may be more or less active.

I guess the best measure is using a lightning detector to give an approximate guide. I know for a fact that you are correct in assuming that nighttime lightning will be more visible. There is evidence however, that lightning can become more active in some cells if radiative cooling could have an impact at night - sometimes more in cloud to cloud activity.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[David C]

It's kind of hard to see lightning in broad daylight unless you are looking directly at the bolt (which is not possible with intra-cloud lightning) and even then it is difficult if there is little contrast. At night time, all the intra-cloud flashes are revealed, although the same thing is going irrespective of whether it's day or night.

Actually we just had a massive flang about 5 minutes ago here in southern Sydney - from the most benign, high-based cloud you could imagine -  definitely did not see that flash 

[striker92]

It seems that lightning must be really intense or really close to show up well in the day, One must take into account that even in the daythe thick clouds of a storm block out a significant amount of light , enough to make strikes show up clearly and easily enough to make powerfull staticco and CG's. I still love lightning at night though, the colours and brilliant sheet lightning are defiantly superior to the daytime strikes, it also lights up the structure of the storms very well.
cheers mark