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I can only contribute my own observations to that, since our official weather station has become an automatic one since 2008 and does not observe thunderstorms anymore.
From the period of 2006-2014:
Bremerhaven had an average of 22.6 thunderstorm days per year.
(Note: This also includes storms with just a few rumbles here and there, according to the definition of the DWD where a thunderstorm day counts when thunder has been heard at least once).
"Real thunderstorms" which really hit us directly are rare here perhaps about five to six times per annum.
A thunderstorm is most likely in July when it occurs on 5.9 days and least likely in February when it occurs on just 0.2 days. A very noticable thing here is the rising number of thunderstorms in December at the moment the average is 1.4 days with 2011 alone having 6 thunderstorm days in this month.
Most thunderstorms tend to appear during the afternoon hours (14-18 h), night time and morning thunderstorms are actually rare here.
Extreme heavy lightning activity: Those kind of thunderstorms are rare here, the very last one was surprisingly this January on the 3rd, the one before was on the June 19th 2013. I would say they don't occur more often than two or three times a year.
Dry thunderstorms: Happens very rarely maybe once or twice a year.
Thunderstorms with lots of rain: I haven't seen a thunderstorm dropping more than 40 mm of rain yet, most thunderstorms do bring about about 5-20 mm of rainfall here, though the one in June 2013 was quite heavy bringing over 30 mm in just a few hours and thus the drainage system was flooded in some streets.
Supercells: Its rare but there have been a few i can quite remember well, June 2013 (long lasting MCS), September 2011 (also an MCS which tracked over Netherlands and Northern germany overnight), May 2009 a supercell which tracked over us in the early morning hours.
Thunderstorms with hail: Storms with graupel (smaller ice pellets) are quite common, but real hail (diameter more than 1 cm) is rare.
Thundersnow: Happens rarely maybe every few years. Last one i can remember was in February 2013.
Tornadoes: There has been a an F3 in August 1988, which was luckily far away from the city,
it tracked over the fishing port and caused quite a lot of damage there.
- Average number of days with thunderstorm per year: 48
- Average number of days with hail per year: 2.6 (not including graupel or any other wintry type of hail)
- Month with most thunderstorms: January, 6 days
- Thunders, Lightnings? Plenty, plenty of them, about 25 strikes per sq km per year.
- Heavy thunderstorms: Frequent, I don't have data. Large volumes of water (>80 mm) are more common than severe windgusts.
- Tornadoes striking the city: occasionally happens, the most important event involving tornadoes in recent times occured on April 4th, 2012. It was actually a massive Der-Echo and produced 4 tornados (two EF2 and two EF1), one of them hit 2 km from my place. Earlier this year there was a non-supercellular tornado 15 km from here.
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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Originally Posted by The East Frisian
I can only contribute my own observations to that, since our official weather station has become an automatic one since 2008 and does not observe thunderstorms anymore.
Do "Spanish plume thunderstorms" usually hit your city?
How thunderstorms behave in my location, is they form plentifully to the west and then find some way to skirt around the city. Even people I know here who have no interest in weather say they have noticed this. I would not be surprised if other places within a half hour drive have a solid 10-15 additional thunderstorm days than where I'm at some years. As someone whose favorite weather is thunderstorms it can be aggravating at times, but I am definitely in the right part of the country.
For Paris-Orly:
[*] Average yearly number of days with thunderstorm: 22.
[*]Most thundery month: July.
[*]Least thundery months: November, December, January, February.
[*]Extreme heavy lightning activity: Can occur between May and September, most likely in summer. Not really common.
[*]Severe dry thunderstorms: not really common, but can occur. Remember one that woke me up in the middle of the night in August 2011.
[*]Thunderstorms with lots of rain, more than 40 mm: not common, but happens from time to time.
[*]Tornadic supercells striking and devastating your town or city: we sometimes get supercells, but not tornadic ones. Tornadoes do happen in this region, but they're quite rare.
[*]Severe thunderstorms with golf ball-sized hailstones: don't remember of any golf ball-sized hailstones, but such things can happen locally.
[*]Thundersnow: uncommon, think I've seen it a couple times in the last 10 years
My memory probably doesn't serve me right, I would have to do some data digging. Anyway here are the 1981-2010 normals I've come up with according to METAR observations posted on Ogimet and Infoclimat:
The pattern is rather symmetric, with a peak season around the summer solstice and practically no activity around the winter solstice when the atmosphere is the most stable. At each edge of these two 4-month seasons, there are 2 transitional months. Surprised that March isn't more thundery, as cold fronts bring a lot of instability compared to winter. Probably not enough to trigger storms.
Average yearly number of days with thunderstorm: around 10 days
Most thundery month: Probably July
Least thundery months: December or January, at a guess (I'll work it out manually when I can be bothered or have nothing better to do).
Extreme heavy lightning activity: Rare, but possible. Last happened in August 2013 (flashes every two-three seconds)
Severe dry thunderstorms: Rare as well, but possible. Last happened in August 2013 (almost constant lightning, but no rain)
Thunderstorms with lots of rain, more than 40 mm: Rare. I don't even recall the last time this happened.
Tornadic supercells striking and devastating your town or city: Extremely rare, but supercells have occurred in the region. We had a tornado in 2006, but it was far from devastating.
Severe thunderstorms with golf ball-sized hailstones: Never seen that here before.
Thundersnow: Never seen it before, or I have no recollection of such an event.
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