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Thunderstorm days over Chilean territory based on WWLLN data

Conference Paper · October 2019

DOI: 10.1109/CHILECON47746.2019.8987705

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 Thunderstorm days over Chilean territory based
on WWLLN data
J. Montaña, Member, IEEE, J. Ardila, R. Schurch, Member, IEEE, and A. Angulo, Member, IEEE
Abstract— Based on World Wide Lightning Location Network
for 2012-2017 data, we describe the spatial and temporal
distribution of lightning activity over Chilean territory. The
thunderstorm days per year was computed using a threshold
value of the human observation of 17.5 km based on the analysis
of meteorological stations in Argentina and Poland. The
maximum thunderstorm days were found in northeastern Chile
in the Arica region, and specific behavior for Western Patagonia
was evidenced. The analysis of lightning activity for every season
of the year and the distribution of lightning during the day were
computed and presented. The main activity is presented in
summer, and the high lighting activity occurs in the afternoon in
local time due to the presence of convective activity.
Keywords —— Ground Flash Density, Lightning Detection
Systems, Thunderstorm Days, World Wide Lightning Location
Network (WWLLN).
I. INTRODUCTION
O ne of the lightning parameters used for many purposes is
the thunderstorm days. In 1873, the International
Meteorological Committee (IMC) adopted the parameter
called: Day with Thunder heard with the following definition:
“In order to obtain results which admit of comparisons, it is
recommended to enumerate only Days of Thunderstorm…
Only days on which both thunder and lightning are observed
should be counted as days of thunderstorms”[1], so that, the
lightning without thunder was excluded in order to avoid to
register very distant storms. At the end of the 19th century,
maps with lines that connected places with the same
thunderstorm days were confectioned. In 1920 the term
Isokeraunic began to be used to define a line with the same
frequency of thunderstorm days [1]. The information of
thunderstorms days based on human observations facilitated
the comparison of storms occurrence for areas of a country,
during different seasons of the year and for different places
around the world. In 1956, the World Meteorological
The authors wish to thank the World Wide Lightning Location Network
(http://wwlln.net), collaboration among over 70 universities and institutions,
for providing the lightning location data used in this paper. Additionally, the
authors want to thank to Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María for
supporting this study through the research project PI_L_17_16.
J. Montaña, R. Schurch and A. Angulo are now with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María,
Valparaiso, Chile (e-mail: johny.montana@usm.cl, roger.schurch@usm.cl,
alejandro.angulo@usm.cl).
J. Ardila is now with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Santiago, Chile (e-mail:
jorge.ardila@usm.cl).
Organization (WMO) shown a map of Thunderstorm Days
based on information of meteorological stations and voluntary
merchant ships [2]. The information of thunderstorm days has
been updated recently using information recorded by lightning
location systems, local or global systems, composed by
antennas and sensors to determine the place where lightning
struck. Recently, a study of South America with the diurnal
patterns in lightning activity using the information of
Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) was presented [4].
Unfortunately, the range of coverage was between 38°N and
38°S, due to the restriction of the LIS satellite orbit.
Additionally, in [5] a study of the lightning activity in western
Patagonia was presented, the range of coverage was between
40°S and 55°S and 64°W and 76°W, the aim of that study was
to present a detailed analysis of this region with emphasis in
their distribution and attending meteorological conditions
based on the World Wide Lightning Location Network
(WWLLN) data.
Nowadays, Chile does not have updated information of
lightning activity, nor it does have a local Lightning Location
Systems to get the information about the lightning activity, the
thunderstorm days’ maps are outdated. Furthermore, Chile is
located between -16° and -56° of latitude and -66° and -76° of
longitude, therefore the lightning activity has not been studied
enough due to significant part of its territory is located in
subtropical region, where the lightning activity is commonly
lower as has been previously reported [1]. Despite this,
information supplied by Transelec (main electricity
transmission company in Chile), reported more than 30
outages of overhead lines due to lightning every year (2014-
2016). This failure rate is very high compared with
international standards, where 1 or 2 outages in 100 km of
overhead lines per year are accepted (IEEE 1243, 1997). In
addition to the failure of overhead lines, local news has
reported deaths (human and animals), forest fires and tragedies
caused by the lightning (these reports are more common in
spring and summer).
Based on previously mentioned, the information available
of the lightning activity for Chilean territory is found in the
world lightning location systems (LLS), with all the
disadvantages that this entails, because the LLSs have reduced
information due to these LLSs are long-range. The
information of LLSs is: location (latitude, longitude), time,
energy, and number of sensors for terrestrial networks. The
data used for this research comes from WWLLN. This
network have been widely analyzed by many authors [4], [6],
[7], [8], [9], [12], [13] so a little description is presented
below.
 This paper aims to show the updated information about
thunderstorms days for Chilean territory and its seasonal and
spatial variations based on information of global lightning
location systems, WWLLN in this case, in order to improve
the knowledge about this lightning parameter for engineering
and meteorological purposes.
II. DATA AND METHODOLOGY
The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) is
a detection network that started in 2003 with 11 sensors, but
nowadays, is composed of more than 70 sensors located in
five continents and some islands (see Fig. 2).
These sensors detect VLF (3-30 kHz) signals to detect the
time of group arrival (TOGA) [6]. Each one sends the
information to the central station, which combines arrival
times for the different sensors in order to locate each
discharge. At least five sensor signals are required to locate a
discharge with a precision of 5 km and < 10 ms. For South
America, the WWLLN has four sensors in Argentina, three
sensors in Brazil, one in Peru, one in Bolivia and two sensors
in Chile. The sensors in Chile were installed in 2014 and 2017
(see Fig. 1).
The analysis domain for this study was geographically
restricted to the region enclosed by 16°-56° S and 66°-76° W,
the continental territory of Chile. Insular and Antarctic
territories were not considered for this study. The Chilean
territory is divided into 15 administrative regions, the maps
and analysis presented in this report show these regions in
order to make their identification easier.
There are many studies and publications about WWLLN,
some of them make a detailed description of the network [6],
some others have calculated the detection efficiency (DE) at
specific areas of the world [7], [8], [9], [12] and [13]. In [7]
authors computed the overall absolute detection efficiency,
10.3% for cloud to ground (CG) flashes and 6.19% of all
flashes in the continental United States during 2008-2009, [8]
computed the corrected global absolute detection efficiency
for CG and in-cloud (IC) flashes of 13,7% for 2010 and 13,0%
Fig. 2 Location of the WWLLN around the world. Red asterisks in white
circles are active lightning sensor locations for the time registered in the top
of the figure. From www.wwlln.net
in 2011. As the authors reported it, the DE of the WWLLN
has been improved due to the increase of new stations,
additionally, the DE is higher in the northern hemisphere and
presents variation year by year [9]. The information that was
used in this study correspond to the database of the WWLLN
between 2012 and 2017 taking advantage of it has information
of the whole continental territory of Chile.
Despite the lower values of DE reported in the literature, the
WWLLN data could be a different DE when the Thunderstorm
days wants to be calculated. Next chapter shows the results
presented in Argentina when a correlation between human
observation and WWLLN data are in agreement using an
adequate grid of analysis.
III. THUNDERSTORM DAYS
The WMO presented information of Thunderstorm Days
(Td) around the world based on human observation from
different countries and Marine data; the information is
available in [2] and [3]. In [3] the WMO has shown a map of
Td with lines that connected places with the same
Fig. 1 Thunderstorms days per year for South America based information of
WMO [2].
thunderstorm days. The WMO used data from meteorological
stations and voluntary merchant ships, that information was
recorded up to 81 years in the USA, 53 years in Puerto Rico,
50 years in Argentina and Finland, and 40 years in Chile,
between others. The Td map was presented in 1956 and has
not been updated since that. Fig. 1 presents the Td values for
South America extracted from [3].
The human observation range was a parameter that was
intrinsic in the data obtained from meteorological stations. On
the other hand, when data comes from lightning location
systems, analysis has to define the size of the grid in order to
compute the Td values. The higher the grid, the higher the Td
values, therefore the size of the grid is one of the critical
parameters required in this study. In [10] was mentioned that a
possible range of audibility of thunder is about 15 km;
additionally, it mentioned that the maximum range of
audibility is typically about 25 km. In [6] an exhaustive
analysis with the information of meteorological stations in
Argentina for the period of 2005-2011 was carried out, in
order to define a better size of the grid (50 km, 25 km, 20 km
or 15 km) to get the Td based on WWLLN data. It was used
data from 15 meteorological stations spread over Argentinian XV
territory. This analysis concluded that the size of the grid of 25
km (∼0.25°) shown similar Td values compared with human I
observation for the stations under analysis. In [11], the authors
made a comparison between local lightning detection network
in Poland and human observation. The conclusion was that the
threshold value of the human average observational II
thunderstorm detection range is between 16.9 km to 18.3 km.
Based on previous reports from different authors, there is
not a unique value that can be used to define the size of the III
grid to compute the Td values for Chile based on WWLLN
data. Therefore, the first step in order to have data of human
observation in Chile was to look for information on Argentina
IV
meteorological stations. The information is available from
1949 until 2011, but unfortunately, the truthfulness of the
V
information is not verifiable because some stations were XIII
unattended. Thus, the size of the grid of this study was chosen VI
based on reports of previous studies. Taking into account that VII
[6] also used the information of WWLLN and the analysis was
made in Argentina, a neighboring country to Chile, we
decided to use the size of the grid defined there, i.e. 25 km. Fig. 3 Thunderstorms days per year for Chile based on WWLLN. Mean values
The analysis was developed based on [11], the size of the for 2012-2017. Threshold values of the human observation of 17.5 km.
Regions Arica (XV) to Maule (VII).
grid was 0.1° ∼ 10 km (this is not the human observation
threshold), a circle was defined from the center of each cell of
the grid, the radii of the circle had the threshold value of the
human observation, 17.5 km (distance from the center to the 5
corner of a square of 25 km). The radii of the circle had to be VIII
30
computed for every cell of the grid taking into account that the 15
20
distance d to which 1° equals varies with latitude according to IX
equation (1). XIV
15
8
X 8
d = cos( latitude ) ⋅ 111 . 325 km (1)

The Td value of every circle is assigned to each cell of the

grid in order to draw the maps. The Td values were divided 3
into two maps in order to have more resolution. They are
presented in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. XI 3

In order to make a comparison between Td values for the 15 15

8

geopolitical regions of Chile, the maximum, minimum and

mean values were computed for every region and they are Argentina
presented in Table I. The values presented in Table I are the 3
mean values for six years (2012-2017) based on WWLLN XII
3
data.
5

5
3

Fig. 4 Thunderstorms days per year for Chile based on WWLLN. Mean values
for 2012-2017.Threshold values of the human observation of 17.5 km.
Regions Maule (VII) to Magallanes (XII).
 TABLE I Arica (18° S) to Araucanía (39°S) is quite similar; significant
THUNDERSTORM DAYS PER YEAR FOR EVERY REGION OF CHILE
lightning activity happens in summer season while the lower
Region Maximum Minimum Mean
activity is during the winter season. On the other hand,
119.0 16.0 62.9
XV. Arica behavior of the regions from Los Rios (40°S) to Magallanes
I. Tarapaca 98.7 8.8 37.2 (56°S) do not have a definite tendency because the maximum
II. Antofagasta 61.5 3.3 24.0 values of lightning activity take place in August (Los Rios and
III. Atacama 34.3 2.8 12.1 Los Lagos) and May (Aysen and Magallanes) and minimum
IV. Coquimbo 20.8 3.3 10.2 values take place in September (first month of the spring
V. Valparaiso 23.2 3.5 11.1 season).
XIII. Metropolitana 23.0 4.0 12.2 With the aim of investigate the distribution of lightning
VI. Libertador 21.5 4.5 11.0 activity during the day over Chilean territory, the information
VII. Maule 18.5 3.8 9.7 of WWLLN was analyzed as follows. First, the information
VIII. Biobio 20.3 4.8 11.0 was divided for the four seasons of the year (summer, autumn,
IX. Araucania 15.7 5.5 11.1 winter, and spring), then the filtered information was
XIV. Los Rios 13.2 5.2 9.1 organized in 24 segments, based on the local time of Chile.
X. Los Lagos 16.5 1.0 7.3 Results are presented in Fig. 5. In the same figure, the mean
XI. Aysen 24.7 0.2 5.4 value (blue line) for the information not clustered by four
XII. Magallanes 22.0 0.2 3.2 seasons, is presented. The results of Fig. 5 show that in
general terms the lightning activity over Chilean territory is
Based on the results, the Td values are higher in the concentrated in the afternoons (14:00 to 20:00 in local time)
northeast of the country near the border with Bolivia and Peru independently of the season, although it is more accentuated in
(Arica, Tarapacá, and Antofagasta regions). In particular, the summer.
number of thunderstorm days are higher in the east of the 12.0%
country, near the border with Argentina, these higher values
have a relation with the Andes mountain, in contrast, the lower 10.0%
values are located near the seashore.
8.0%
Percentage

IV. SEASONAL BEHAVIOR OF THE TD 6.0%

The Td mean values for six years (2012-2017) were 4.0%

computed monthly in order to identify the higher and lower

lightning activity during the year for every geopolitical region. 2.0%

The percentage of mean monthly Td with respect to the mean

annual Td values are presented in Table II for the 15 regions. 0.0%

For each region the maximum and minimum Td percentages

are highlighted to emphasize the seasons of significant Day Time

lightning activity. Summer Autumn Winter Spring Mean

Fig. 5 Distribution of Lightning activity during the daytime for every season
over Chilean territory based on WWLLN. Values for years 2012-2017.
TABLE II
MONTHLY PERCENTAGE OF THE MEAN VALUE OF THUNDERSTORM DAYS FOR
EVERY REGION OF CHILE (%)
Reg J F M A M J J A S O N D V. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
XV 23 22 20 9 1 1 1 1 2 4 4 13
I 25 26 18 7 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 12 The thunderstorm days is one of the lightning parameters
II 30 28 15 4 2 2 1 1 1 2 4 10 used since the end of the 19th century. First, the Td values
III 32 22 13 4 3 2 2 2 2 3 4 11 were computed based on human observation either in
IV 33 21 9 6 2 2 2 2 2 3 6 11
V 26 22 8 8 4 2 2 3 2 3 8 11 meteorological stations or voluntary merchant ships. Based on
XIII 26 21 9 9 5 3 2 2 2 3 7 12 this long-term information, the WMO delivered the first world
VI 22 17 9 8 6 4 3 3 3 5 7 12 Td map in 1956 with lines that connected places with the same
VII 19 16 8 6 8 5 3 4 3 4 10 13
VIII 16 14 6 6 6 7 4 6 3 5 13 13
thunderstorm days. Based on that map, Chilean territory
IX 16 13 6 7 5 4 5 8 4 6 13 12 presented Td values between 1 and 20, in the south and the
XIV 11 10 5 8 9 9 10 15 4 5 5 10 north, respectively. Nowadays, they are world lightning
X 9 9 6 10 12 8 11 16 4 5 4 6
location systems able to determine the location of the
XI 7 5 8 9 18 8 11 12 4 6 6 5
XII 7 10 9 10 11 9 11 9 5 6 7 6 lightning. One of this systems is the WWLLN, which has two
antennas installed and working in Chile since 2014. Based on
From the Table II, the characteristic of the regions from WWLLN data, the Td values were calculated for six years
(2012 to 2017) in order to compare and update the Td values
for Chilean territory. The results show that while the
maximum value presented by WMO map was 20
thunderstorm days/year in the north of the country, the
maximum Td value computed using WWLLN is 119
days/year. The minimum values were 1.0 day/year for WMO
and 0.20 days/year for WWLLN.
Additionally, the lightning activity was investigated for the
four seasons of the year, the results have shown that the
lightning activity is higher in summer and lower in winter,
although this behavior is not the same for latitudes higher than
40°S. To explain this particular behavior, in [5], the authors
presented a study of this area called Western Patagonia, from
40°S to 55°S along the west coast of South America. They put
special attention on higher values of lightning activity, as it
was presented in Table I. They showed that lightning activity
tends to occur when this region is immersed in a pool of cold
air behind a front that reached the coast at ~40°S, lightning
days are accompanied by precipitation all the time although
there are many precipitation days without lightning. The
variation of lightning days for all the area under analysis goes
from 107 in 2008 to 151 in 2012; during 2011 there were 125
lightning days. Finally, they found that lightning activity is
slightly more frequent during late summer and autumn for
Western Patagonia.
Based on the temporal analysis performed above, the
highest lightning activity is presented from 14:00 to 20:00
hours in local time for Chilean territory. The analysis was
separated for every season for the six years under analysis
(2012-2017). The behavior was quite similar for all the
seasons, although it is more accentuated in summer. A similar
analysis was studied in [4], where the authors presented a
spatial and temporal analysis of lightning activity over South
America using the information of Lightning Imaging Sensor
(LIS) between 1998 and 2013. The coverage area of LIS is
38°N to 38°S, so that the results can be partially compared.
They found that the maximum annual flash density (AFD -
number of flashes per km2) occurs between September and
November, on the other hand, the period between December
and February also displays a significant lightning activity,
mainly on the southern part of the examined region (38°S).
This result is in agreement with the analysis presented in this
study. As well, in [4] it is shown that the time of maximum
lightning activity was concentrated between 14:00 and 18:00
local time, associated with the peaking of the local convective
activity.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Six years of lightning detection information from WWLLN
has allowed identifying the spatial and temporal variation of
lightning activity over Chilean territory. The analysis domain
for this study was geographically restricted to the region
enclosed by 16°-56° S and 66°-76° W, the continental territory
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of Chile. Information of Td was presented for fifteen
geopolitical regions in which the country is divided. The
highest values of Td are located in the northeastern region
called Arica with 119 thunderstorm days per year. The season
that presents more lightning activity during the year is summer
(60%), although Western Patagonia presents a particular issue
because this behavior is not entirely defined. The local time
between 14:00 and 20:00 hours is the period during the day
that presents the highest lightning activity (60%), while the
lowest activity occurs between 6:00 and 11:00 LT (6%).
The values presented in this research about lightning
activity have to be updated with WWLLN data for 2018 and
future years in order to consider the variability of weather and
taking into account that the lightning activity depends on
many factors (global climate, annual phenomena, etc.).
Additionally, the detection efficiency of the WWLLN has
been improved with the addition of new stations in the last
decade, so the results will have to be updated and will be
possible to plot series of time on the behavior of them.
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[3] “World distribution of Thunderstorms Days - Part 2” Word
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