Zhu et al. (2025) Increased Thunderstorm Activities Caused by Warming and Wetting Over the Tibetan Plateau

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-10
• Authors: K. Zhu, Xiushu Qie, Shanfeng Yuan, Kai Qie, Lei Wei, Zhuling Sun, Rubin Jiang, Xueke Wu, Chen Xu
• DOI: 10.1029/2025jd044233

Research Groups

Not explicitly mentioned in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study generated a new continuous thunderstorm dataset for the Tibetan Plateau (TP) from 2010 to 2024, revealing a significant increase in thunderstorm activity but a weak decrease in intensity, primarily driven by changes in convective available potential energy and moisture.

Objective

• To generate a continuous thunderstorm dataset for the Tibetan Plateau and analyze trends in thunderstorm activity and intensity, identifying their underlying drivers.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Tibetan Plateau (TP)
• Temporal Scale: 2010 to 2024

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm
• Data sources: Lightning data obtained from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN)

Main Results

• A significant increase in thunderstorm activity was observed over the Tibetan Plateau in the recent two decades.
• The maximum rate of increase in thunderstorm activity reached 2.7 × 10⁻⁴ km⁻² thunderstorms per year in the south-central TP.
• A weak decreasing trend in thunderstorm intensity, as evidenced by its lightning production capacity, was found.
• The increase in thunderstorm numbers is mainly driven by increased convective available potential energy (CAPE) due to increased near-surface moisture over the TP.
• The decrease in thunderstorm intensity is attributed to decreased ice-phase processes and more warm rainfall, caused by increased near-surface moisture in the western TP and warming in the eastern TP.

Contributions

• Generation of a novel, continuous thunderstorm dataset for the Tibetan Plateau using lightning data.
• Identification of contrasting trends in thunderstorm activity (increasing) and intensity (decreasing) over the TP in recent decades.
• Attribution of these trends to specific climatic drivers, such as changes in convective available potential energy, near-surface moisture, and regional warming.
• Highlighting the implications of severe weather changes for future global energy reallocation and the water cycle.

Funding

Not explicitly mentioned in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Zhu2025Increased,
  author = {Zhu, K. and Qie, Xiushu and Yuan, Shanfeng and Qie, Kai and Wei, Lei and Sun, Zhuling and Jiang, Rubin and Wu, Xueke and Xu, Chen},
  title = {Increased Thunderstorm Activities Caused by Warming and Wetting Over the Tibetan Plateau},
  journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025jd044233},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025jd044233}
}