Temporal and spatial characteristics of lightning in Guangdong region

The temporal and spatial distributions of lightning density in Guangdong were studied by using data sets of lightning location system (LLS) and weather station observation. Results showed that the lightning activities were taken place in every month, and much higher these years. The maximum frequency occured from May to September (accounting to 92.41% of the year), and especially in June and in August, the frequency was up to 23.39% and 22.16% of the year, respectively. The lightning frequency also had obvious diurnal distribution, with the first peak value from 12:00 to 20:00 LCT (Local time), the second one from 0:00 to 5:00 LCT. By comparing the distribution of lightening in the two data sets, we found they were relatively consistent, and obviously in value areas. The frequency in CGL (cloud-ground lightning) and return strokes were mainly occurred in PRD, Qingyuan, Leizhou and Lianjiang, but they had different distribution features .The high-lightning area of LLS was located in Foushan and Lianjiang (112°~ 113°E, 22.5° ~ 23.5°N), by contrast, the thunderstorm was in Leizhou and Lianjiang ( 100.5°~ 111° E, 20° ~ 22°N). One possibility of this discrepancy was the definition of thunderstorm and lighterning in different weather processes. We found the aereas of strong thunderstorm current usually overlapped with that of lightning, these could shed light on further research on the lightning distribution over Guangodng region.