Not sure if you get enough thundersnow to really sway the needle towards night-time lightning. Maybe as you cool at night, storms fire over the lake at night, equivalent to landbreezes. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.
Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Are lightning storms more common at night? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 5 months ago. Active 4 years, 3 months ago.
Viewed 4k times. Googling, at least for me, has not been fruitful in answering this question. Improve this question. Tritium21 Tritium21 1 1 silver badge 8 8 bronze badges. Hereabouts east side of the Sierra Nevada they're more common in late afternoon to evening. Nights are darker and more quiet, thus it's harder to notice lightning flashes and thunders.
I would rather have given it here, but that question appeared more suited to the discussion of why. I couldn't find much on whether double answering is valid on different SE, if anyone has suggestion, I'd be interested to hear it. Show 4 more comments. Active Oldest Votes.
Improve this answer. Sip Sip 81 6 6 bronze badges. Add a comment. Here is a plot from Global electric circuit implications of combined aircraft storm electric current measurements and satellite-based diurnal lightning statistics Mach, Blakeslee, Bateman: And to add a better idea of how much regional variability is involved, this plot of peak lightning time from Cloud-to-Ground Lightning in the United States: NLDN Results in the First Decade, —98 Orville and Huffins: The summary is that the majority of places see peaks during the afternoon, but there is variation, including perhaps a few parts of New York.
Generally, the mechanism responsible for the majority of storms heavily determines when peak times occur: Devoid of other overwhelming factors, the afternoon will generally be favored in most areas. This is because that is when peak atmospheric heating occurs. To form a thunderstorm, air must rise until it can attain a level where it has cooled to being saturated.
Without external forcing mechanisms, the air rising must start warm and moist enough to reach this point. Tornadoes, however, are much more likely during the day, especially during the late afternoon and early evening, not at night.
Tornadoes are also much more common in the spring than in the summer in most parts of the country. Bluestein: During PECAN, scientists and students are using a large group of instruments to take measurements in the atmosphere before and during nocturnal thunderstorms. Some instruments are being driven to areas in the Plains where storms are expected to form, and others are flown to these areas on aircraft.
Analyses of the vast amounts of data collected, and the use of state-of-the-art computer models, will shed light on how nocturnal storms form. Bluestein: The instruments include sophisticated Doppler radars, lasers and devices that measure radiation, which can tell us what the temperature and humidity are.
Other more conventional instruments such as thermometers and anemometers are mounted on the roofs of cars. Weather balloons are also being launched from mobile platforms. Bluestein: Nocturnal thunderstorms that occur in large complexes or lines are capable of producing damaging winds, hail and torrential rainfall that can result in flash flooding.
Tornadoes, however, while possible, occur much less frequently at night. Lightning is also a significant hazard. Bluestein: Be sure to secure all outdoor patio furniture and other things that can be blown around by strong winds.
Park cars in garages or under shelters if possible to protect them from hail or falling tree branches. Make sure electronic devices such as computers and televisions that are plugged into the wall are protected from electrical surges or are simply disconnected.
If you live in a flood-prone area, be prepared to evacuate if a flash flood warning is issued. A NOAA weather radio with an alarm tone and a cellphone with alarm capability are useful for being awakened and warned while you are asleep.
Wakimoto: Computer simulations, which are viewed every evening on news channels, have significantly improved our ability to forecast thunderstorms. Department of Energy. The typical afternoon thunderstorm forms when the sun heating the earth leads to instability in the atmosphere as warm surface air meets cooler air aloft.
Often storms initially develop over the high terrain in Colorado and Wyoming in the afternoon and evening, and then move eastward into Kansas and Nebraska after sunset. But that process shifts overnight as the surface cools, Schumacher explained, and other processes can maintain that instability overnight.
Sometimes very intense storms can persist all the way until the next morning, creating a threat for severe weather and flash flooding. Related Story: Ever wondered how far was that lightning? PECAN uses three research aircraft, two of which fly in clear air away from storms.
Only the third, a NOAA P-3, which is widely used in hurricane research and reconnaissance, will be able to fly into the trailing regions of storms.
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