Lightning Detector Query

[sriram]

I would be grateful if you could answer the following - how does the lightning detector work? Yesterday afternoon at around 1.30pm the detector showed loads of red crosses across the west midlands meaning there are lots of very recent lightning strikes around - but there were no thunderstorms here at all - just a dark sky for a short while and a bit of rain. I would be grateful if you could explain what is making the detector pick up strikes and showing as multi coloured crosses - even though we might not see any thunderstorms at all from what you might expect from the map - thanks

[Paul]

Hi, the lightning detector uses the ATD system run by the Met Office, you can find more info about it in this fact sheet (about 2/3 of the way through it):

http://www.metoffice...sheet_No._2.pdf

Many people in the midlands did in fact see storms yesterday though, and judging by the radar there was a fair bit more than just some light rain for a good deal of the region.

[sriram]

thanks - looks like its on the whole pretty accurate - in any case thunderstorms are always very localised events - just because there is a red cross in my location on the ATD map does not mean to say that there isn't a lightning strike going on 2 miles away