Lightning climatology in Colombia

Abstract

Colombia’s lightning climatology was studied using 16 years of high-resolution data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Lightning Imaging Sensor (TRMM LIS). The findings present the climatology of the country organized in two ways: where lightning occurs and when lightning occurs. The authors sorted data using Colombia’s six natural regions and conditional mean values for day, month, quarter, and year for frequency occurrence. The findings show a high mean flash rate density (FRD) around 70 fl km$^{-2}$ year$^{-1}$ in $15\%$ of the territory. Most of this activity concentrates in the northern part of the country between latitude 7$^{\circ }$ N and 11$^{\circ }$ N. Regarding time patterns, lightning reaches its maximum in most of the territory two times a year with a transition period marked by a steep fall. But, the areas with higher activity seem to have a single lightning season, with a maximum around August. These findings confirm the need to consider lightning activity based on regional contexts. During the day, activity is more probable from afternoon to evening in the southern part of the country; meanwhile, it tends to go from afternoon to early morning in northern regions.