RESEARCH//LIGHTNING

Since the 1970s, TORRO has compiled a national database of incidents when lightning has struck people, buildings, property, trees and animals and disrupted electricity supplies. This has enabled an assessment of the lightning risk in the UK to be undertaken and to compare this risk with other countries. Lightning safety advice is provided to organisations and the media. Research into specific incidents is undertaken too. Summaries and reviews of each year's lightning incidents are published in the International Journal of Meteorology along with annual summaries of thunderstorm activity. Copies of the most recent reviews are available from Jonathan Webb.

If you have experienced a lightning incident, please help TORRO's research and send details to Jonathan Webb.

The scope of TORRO's research into lightning impacts is summarised by Derek Elsom and Jonathan Webb in chapter 10 of 'Extreme Weather: Forty Years of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation', edited by Robert K. Doe, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.