Study reveals steady increase in thunderstorm and lightning activities in Bengaluru

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The survey  reveals that some  thunderstorms and lightning events successful  Bengaluru exhibited a important    expanding  trend, rising annually by 3.41% and 3.3%, respectively.

The survey reveals that some thunderstorms and lightning events successful Bengaluru exhibited a important expanding trend, rising annually by 3.41% and 3.3%, respectively. | Photo Credit: File photo

On April 29 Bengaluru received dense downpour coupled with thunderstorms and hailstorms. The strength was truthful dense that the Bengaluru metropolis presumption recorded 78 mm rainfall wrong a duration of astir 30 minutes.

A survey conducted by the scientists and researchers from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Bangalore University, and Andhra University, published successful the Current World Environment Journal, has recovered that the dense rainfall and thunderstorms similar the 1 which occurred connected April 29 was not a 1 disconnected incidental but a recurring one.

The study, “Thunderstorms and their Influence connected Meteorology and Atmospheric Composition implicit Southern Peninsular”, has revealed that Bengaluru is experiencing a significant, statistically verified summation successful some thunderstorm and lightning activities.

Scientists led by IMD Scientist C.S. Patil, who is the pb writer of the study, utilizing a 13-year dataset spanning from 2011 to 2023, person recovered that Bengaluru records an mean of 41 thunderstorm days and 157 lightning strikes each year.

Increasing trend

The survey revealed that some thunderstorms and lightning events successful Bengaluru exhibited a important expanding trend, rising annually by 3.41% and 3.3%, respectivelyd.

It further said that Bengaluru’s localised information reveals a unsocial determination microclimate trajectory arsenic implicit the 13-year model the metropolis has experienced a dependable summation successful cumulative rainfall (rising by 1.44 mm per year), comparative humidity (up 0.74% per year), portion the section aboveground temperatures showed a flimsy diminution of 0.06°C per year.

According to the study, the amalgamation of precocious section vigor during daytime hours and an abundant moisture proviso from moving monsoonal systems creates a cleanable thermodynamic look to trigger terrible tempest convection.

“Because vigor and humidity are foundational gathering blocks for tempest development, the probability of much terrible localised thunderstorms is expected to emergence successful the coming years,” the scientists said.

When they strike

They besides mapped precisely erstwhile the thunderstorm and lightning activities onslaught the city. “Diurnally, thunderstorms travel a crisp unimodal curve : they are incredibly uncommon during greeting and forenoon hours, statesman escalating rapidly aft 3 p.m. owed to daytime star heating of the onshore surface, and scope their implicit highest successful the precocious evening betwixt 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.,” they said.

The survey further revealed that connected an yearly scale, the metropolis experiences a dual-peak pattern. “The archetypal and largest spike occurs during the pre-monsoon period of May, averaging 12 thunderstorm days, driven by aggravated thermal instability and oceanic depressions. A secondary, weaker highest manifests during the post-monsoon modulation successful September and October arsenic the monsoon trough retreats southward,” the scientists said.

Published - May 21, 2026 09:58 p.m. IST

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