Received: 18 October 2022 Revised: 25 July 2023
DOI: 10.1002/joc.8228
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Thunderstorm detection from GPM IMERG rainfall:
Climatology of dynamical and thermodynamical processes
over India
Talukdar Sasanka 1 | Kumari Priya 1
1
Department of Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences, National Institute of Technology
Rourkela, Rourkela, India
2
Department of Earth and Planetary
Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences,
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin,
Texas, USA
3
Department of Civil, Architectural, and
Environmental Engineering, Cockrell
School of Engineering, The University of
Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Correspondence
Krishna K. Osuri, Department of Earth
and Atmospheric Sciences, National
Institute of Technology Rourkela,
Rourkela 769008, Odisha, India.
Email: osurikishore@gmail.com
Funding information
Ministry of Earth Sciences, Grant/Award
Number: MoES/16/09/2018-RDEAS-
THUMP-7; US National Science
Foundation, Grant/Award Number:
AGS-1902642; University of Texas at
Austin Bridging Barriers Initiative; John
E. “Brick” Elliott Professorship
Endowment
Int J Climatol. 2023;1–20.
Accepted: 11 August 2023
| Krishna K. Osuri 1 | Dev Niyogi 2,3
Abstract
This study aims to (i) prepare a premonsoon thunderstorms database,
(ii) understand the thunderstorm frequency, duration and intensity and
(iii) composite analysis of dynamic and thermodynamic processes related to
thunderstorms over India. The thunderstorm associated rainfall varies across
India. Hence, a percentile-based approach is implemented with the integrated
multi-satellite retrievals for global precipitation measurement (IMERG) dataset
at 0.1
resolution to identify thunderstorms for 2001–2021. The 93rd percentile
appears to be better for thunderstorm detection, with a success ratio of 82%
(642 events are confirmed out of 786 detected) in eastern India. Further analy-
sis indicated that 84% of the detected thunderstorms in eastern and northeast-
ern India are associated with lightning activity. Based on this long-term (2001–
2021) thunderstorm data, the highest frequency of thunderstorms (40–
45 eventsyear−1) is observed over the western foothills of the Himalayas, the
northeast region, and the west coast of Kerala. The thunderstorm duration in
the eastern and northeastern regions and the southwest coast of India is mostly
0.5–2.5 h, producing heavy rainfall (>7 mmh−1) due to more moisture content
and stronger updrafts. The composite structure of thermodynamic indices
exhibits significant spatial variations over India and can be used to differenti-
ate the regions of high thunderstorm activity. The minimum (maximum) con-
vective available potential energy (convective inhibition) value required for
thunderstorm development is not uniform throughout the country. However,
the composites of K index and total totals index during thunderstorms are
mostly uniform. This study highlights the benefits of IMERG rainfall in thun-
derstorm detection over India and helps to understand the local forcings and
the effect of thunderstorm activity on different sectors like aviation, agriculture
and so forth.
KEYWORDS
climatology, GPM IMERG rainfall, Indian region, premonsoon, thermodynamic parameters,
thunderstorm database
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joc © 2023 Royal Meteorological Society 1

2 SASANKA ET AL.
1 | INTRODUCTION
Thunderstorms are extreme weather events that result
from severe convection, often associated with heavy rain-
fall, lightning, hail, gusty winds, squall lines and some-
times even tornados (American Meteorological
Society, 2022; Mohanty et al., 2007). The spatial extent of a
thunderstorm is usually in the range of a few kilometres,
travels a few hundred kilometres and persists from less
than an hour to several hours (STORM, 2005). The pre-
monsoon (March–May) season in India is one of the global
hotspots for thunderstorms (Zipser et al., 2006). The light-
ning strikes associated with thunderstorms are responsible
for 39% of overall deaths caused by all natural hazards in
India (Illiyas et al., 2014). In 2021, out of 1750 deaths
caused by all extreme weather events in India, 787 deaths
were attributed to thunderstorm lightning strikes, far
greater than the 172 fatalities attributed to cyclonic storms
(Deogharia, 2022). Downbursts, hails and tornadoes associ-
ated with thunderstorms cause damage to different sectors,
such as aviation, crops/vegetation and property (STORM,
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2005). Das (2015) reported damages to crops and properties
ranging from 1.2 million USD in 1978 to 1.6 billion USD in
2015 from individual thunderstorms across India. Hence,
understanding the nature of thunderstorms across India is
important and could lead to better predictions of thunder-
storm events. Since 2005, efforts have been made to moni-
tor and observe the thunderstorms in the eastern parts of
India through the Severe Thunderstorm Observation and
Regional Modeling (STORM) program (Mohanty
et al., 2007). However, the short duration and localized
nature of thunderstorms make them challenging to
observe, limiting the understanding of the spatial charac-
teristics and the dynamical and thermodynamical parame-
ters associated with thunderstorms (Singh et al., 2011;
Tyagi, 2007).
In India, the premonsoon thunderstorms show vari-
ability as the driving factors, including topography, sur-
face heating and moisture advection in an unstable
atmosphere, depend on the region of formation (Das
et al., 2014). Figure 1 provides the nomenclature of
thunderstorm-prone regions in India, indicating their
F I G U R E 1 The states of
India and the local names of
premonsoon thunderstorms. The
domains (d1–d9) shown are used
in Figures 9 and 10 [Colour
figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

SASANKA ET AL.
nature in terms of movement and intensity. In the eastern
parts of the country, thunderstorms are often associated
with heavy rain and squall lines which predominantly
move towards the southeast direction. Due to their direc-
tion of movement, premonsoon storms in the region are
called Nor'westers or locally referred to as “Kal-Baisakhi”
(Desai, 1950). The winds associated with Nor'westers can
reach up to a speed of 130–150 kmh−1 and sometimes
even evolve into tornados (Sen, 1931; Yamane et al., 2010).
On the other hand, in northwestern India, the premon-
soon thunderstorms have little to no rainfall and are asso-
ciated with thick walls of dust across the region. These
types of dust storms in the region are locally referred to as
“Andhi” (Joseph, 1982). Like Nor'westers, Andhi may also
have associated squall lines, and the radar echoes often
indicate precipitation aloft (Chakravarty et al., 2021;
Joseph et al., 1980).
Zipser et al. (2006) examined severe thunderstorm cli-
matology across the globe using the topical rainfall mea-
surement mission (TRMM) data from 1998 to 2004. They
found intense storms along the foothills of the Himalayas,
the eastern coast and the southwest coast of India. Rela-
tively high frequency of thunderstorms was observed in the
east and northeast parts of India. Tyagi (2007) studied the
climatology of thunderstorms in India using 30 years
(1951–1980) of in situ station data. The highest frequencies
(35–40 daysyear−1) of thunderstorms are observed in the
western foothills of the Himalayas (Jammu subdivision),
the northeast part of India and the west coast of Kerala,
while the lowest frequencies are observed over Gujarat
(2–3 daysyear−1), Rajasthan (5–10 daysyear−1), west
Madhya Pradesh and north Maharashtra (10–15 days).
Relatively high frequencies of thunderstorms are observed
over east Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, adjoining
parts of Andhra Pradesh (15–20 daysyear−1), West Bengal
and adjoining Jharkhand, Odisha, south Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka (20–30 daysyear−1).
The primary ingredients for the development of thun-
derstorms are atmospheric instability, moisture and a lift-
ing mechanism for the air parcel (Doswell III, 2001). The
presence of a conditionally stable environment and suffi-
cient moisture, combined with a lifting mechanism, initi-
ates the formation of thunderstorms. These favourable
atmospheric conditions for thunderstorms are often
described in terms of different thermodynamic stability
indices (Bondyopadhyay et al., 2021; Dalal et al., 2012; Ray
et al., 2013, 2015; Sahu et al., 2020; Umakanth et al., 2019).
Along with providing insights into the thunderstorm char-
acteristics, these indices are also useful in differentiating
thunderstorms from the mean premonsoon climatology
(Gottlieb, 2009; Khole & Biswas, 2007; Samanta
et al., 2020; Tyagi et al., 2011; Umakanth et al., 2021). How-
ever, these studies are limited in India in terms of temporal
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3
or spatial scales and are mostly confined to two to three
stations or seasons (Bondyopadhyay et al., 2021; Dalal
et al., 2012; Jayakrishnan & Babu, 2013; Ray et al., 2013;
Sahu et al., 2020; Umakanth et al., 2019).
The inability to conduct long-term or climatological
analyses of thunderstorms (occurrences and intensity)
over different parts of India is mainly due to the lack of
continuous and dense observational network (Singh
et al., 2011; Tyagi, 2007). It is highly possible to miss
thunderstorm events from sparse station observations. As
an alternative step, satellite-derived information can be
used to detect thunderstorms. For example, Tyagi et al.
(2012) used cloud top temperature from very high-
resolution radiometer of Kalpana-1 satellite at a spatial
resolution of 8 km in 1-h intervals to study the premon-
soon thunderstorm occurrences in 2009. Previous studies
have also used feature-tracking algorithms to study meso-
scale convective systems across the globe (e.g., Da Silva &
Haerter, 2023; Feng et al., 2021; Huang et al., 2018).
Huang et al. (2018) used brightness temperatures and an
area threshold of 5000 km2 to classify the mesoscale con-
vective systems. Feng et al. (2021) relied on the combina-
tion of infrared brightness temperature and precipitation
characteristics derived from satellite data products for
detecting and tracking the convective systems. They used
a threshold area of 4 × 104 km2 and a precipitation
threshold of 2 mmh−1 in the detection process. Da Silva
and Haerter (2023) have used IMERG precipitation and
lightning information from the European Cooperation
for Lightning Detection network to detect and track
mesoscale convective systems across Europe. However,
all these studies have considered uniform threshold cri-
teria for the detection of mesoscale convective systems
across the study region, ignoring the spatial variability of
rainfall associated with these systems. The constant rain-
fall criteria may not be appropriate for the Indian region
considering the rainfall variability associated with thun-
derstorms over different parts of India (Das et al., 2014).
Therefore, a percentile-based approach may be appropri-
ate for the detection of thunderstorms over India.
This study is aimed to prepare a long-term thunder-
storm database for the premonsoon season in India using
high-resolution satellite rainfall, in addition to lighting data
from FY-4A geostationary data. In contrast to the Lagrang-
ian approach followed by the previous studies (Da Silva &
Haerter, 2023; Feng et al., 2021; Huang et al., 2018), this
study attempts to detect premonsoon thunderstorms over
India using a Eulerian approach. The derived thunder-
storm database enables the study of spatial and temporal
variations of thunderstorms. The database may help in
developing the composite structures of meteorological con-
ditions associated with thunderstorms (e.g., stability indi-
ces, updrafts/downdrafts, moisture, etc.).

4 SASANKA ET AL.
2 | DATA AND METHODOLOGY
The integrated multi-satellite retrievals for global precipita-
tion measurement (GPM IMERG) version 6 final product
is used in this study (Huffman et al., 2019a). This dataset
has been considered for the period 2001–2021. The half-
hourly rainfall at 0.1
× 0.1
grid resolution has been pre-
pared using satellite passive microwave, and/or infrared
sensors along with calibration methods. This dataset has
been identified for better performance in different seasons
in India (Prakash et al., 2018; Saikrishna et al., 2021). How-
ever, previous studies have demonstrated the inability of
IMERG to accurately detect precipitation over mountain-
ous terrain (Ma et al., 2016; Navarro et al., 2020; Prakash
et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2018). Hence the
present study discards the gridcells with elevations greater
than 3500 m. The elevation data at 90 m spatial resolution
have been obtained from Shuttle Radar Topography Mis-
sion (SRTM) digital elevation dataset version 4 (Jarvis
et al., 2008). The processing of the IMERG precipitation
data is performed on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) plat-
form (Gorelick et al., 2017).
The thunderstorm occurrences are obtained from
Regional Meteorological Center, Kolkata (https://www.
imdkolkata.gov.in/acwc/fdpdata/view). These in situ
reports contain timings of observed thunderstorm events
for several locations across eastern India for the years 2019–
2021. Thunderstorms for a particular station is reported if
the weather condition is associated with thunder, lightning
and rain in the vicinity of the station (Mohanty et al., 2007).
The thunderstorm is mainly monitored by the synoptic/
upper air observatory, followed by Doppler weather radar
and satellite observations, and so forth. Based on the avail-
ability of data, 27 sites are used in the verification for the
years 2019–2021, where 2305 thunderstorms are available
for verification. In addition to this, 1984 thunderstorm
reports at 93 locations are also used in the verification
across India for the year 2016. The study also utilizes level-2
lightning information collected from the lightning mapping
imager (LMI) onboard the Fengyun-4A (FY-4A) satellite
(Hui et al., 2020; Yang et al., 2017) during 2019–2021 to fur-
ther validate the detected thunderstorms. The LMI sensor
offers lightning flash rates at a spatial resolution of 7.8 km
and a frame rate of 2 ms. Note that the satellite covers
the eastern regions of India from March to September
(Hui et al., 2020). The study uses the LMI lightning infor-
mation for April and May.
The primary systems responsible for premonsoon
rainfall in India are thunderstorms and tropical cyclones
(Das et al., 2014; Mohanty et al., 2012; Tyagi, 2007; Vinay
Kumar & Venkateswara Naidu, 2020). Confining the
focus of the study, the cyclonic rainfall was excluded,
including 3 days before the genesis and after the
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dissipation. The information on tropical cyclone days is
obtained from India Meteorological Department (IMD;
https://rsmcnewdelhi.imd.gov.in).
The fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-
Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis (ERA5)
dataset is used to develop the climatology of atmospheric
conditions associated with thunderstorms. ERA5 con-
tains hourly data of different atmospheric and surface
variables at 0.25
× 0.25
horizontal resolution with
37 vertical pressure levels (from 1000 to 1 hPa). The
ERA5 dataset has been prepared using the 4D-Var data
assimilation considering large quantities of high-quality
observations into the model, giving the best estimate of
the state of the atmosphere at a given time (Hersbach
et al., 2020). The ERA5 has been widely used for its better
performance over other reanalysis products (Climate
Forecast System Reanalysis, ERA-Interim, Modern Era
Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications
version 2, Indian Monsoon Data Assimilation and Analy-
sis, etc.) over India (Chakraborty et al., 2021; Mahto &
Mishra, 2019; Singh et al., 2021) as well as over the globe
(Jiang et al., 2021; Li et al., 2020; Tarek et al., 2020;
Taszarek et al., 2021; Urban et al., 2021). The 500-hPa
geopotential height and vertical wind from ERA5 are
used to understand thunderstorm dynamics. Similarly,
the spatial composites of convective available potential
energy (CAPE), convective inhibition (CIN), K index
(KI) and total totals index (TTI) have been prepared. The
descriptions of these indices are presented in Table 1.
Note that the CAPE and CIN in ERA5 are calculated by
considering initial air parcels at various model levels
below 350 hPa. The maximum value among these esti-
mates is retained as the CAPE/CIN value for the grid.
The difference in some meteorological parameters
(CAPE, CIN, KI, TTI, vertical velocity and 500 hPa geo-
potential height) during thunderstorms and premonsoon
climatology is tested using the Mann–Whitney U test
(Nachar, 2008) at a 99% significance level. Since the sam-
ple sizes for both populations here are unequal (size of
premonsoon data points > size of thunderstorm data
points) and may not follow Gaussian distribution, the
Mann–Whitney U test is used. In this study, a null
hypothesis is considered that there is no significant differ-
ence between the meteorological parameters between the
thunderstorm and the premonsoon databases. This null
hypothesis is tested against the alternative hypothesis—
the values of the meteorological parameters during thun-
derstorms are significantly greater (less) than the pre-
monsoon climatology for CAPE, KI, TTI and vertical
velocity (CIN and 500 hPa geopotential height). The null
hypothesis is rejected if the p-value is less than 0.01. A
significant difference between the thunderstorm and pre-
monsoon climatology of the meteorological parameters
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SASANKA ET AL. 5

TABLE 1 Description of the thermodynamic indices used in this study

Index Formula Description of variables

Convective available
potential energy (CAPE)
Convective inhibition (CIN)
K index (KI)
Total totals index (TTI)
R pn  
p Rd T vp −T ve d ln p
T vp is the virtual temperature of a lifted parcel moving
f
upward moist adiabatically from the level of free
convection to the level of neutral buoyancy
T ve is the virtual temperature of the environment
Rd is the specific gas constant for dry air
pf is the pressure at the level of free convection
pn is the pressure at the level of neutral buoyancy
R pf  
− pi Rd T vp −T ve d ln p T vp is the virtual temperature of a lifted parcel
T ve is the virtual temperature of the environment
Rd is the specific gas constant for dry air
pf is the pressure at the level of free convection
pi is the pressure at the level at which the parcel originates
ðT 850 −T 500 Þ +D850 − ðT 700 −D700 Þ T 850 is the temperature at 850 hPa
ðT 850 −T 500 Þ + ðD850 − T 500 Þ T 700 is the temperature at 700 hPa
T 500 is the temperature at 500 hPa
D850 is the dewpoint temperature at 850 hPa
D700 is the dewpoint temperature at 700 hPa

F I G U R E 2 Flowchart
describing the workflow
followed in the study

adds additional confidence to the IMERG-derived thun- 3.1 | Preparation of thunderstorm

derstorm database. The steps followed in the study have
been briefly summarized through a flowchart in Figure 2.
3 | R ES U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N
This section has been divided into two subsections. The
first section identifies the optimum rainfall threshold for
detecting thunderstorm occurrences, followed by analys-
ing climatological characteristics of thunderstorm occur-
rences across India. The second section presented the
composites of the thunderstorm attributes and compared
them with seasonal climatology.
database
The spatial distribution of half-hourly IMERG rainfall
from 80 to 99 percentile at 1 percentile intervals during
the premonsoon season over India is analysed. The
spatial distribution of rainfall is almost similar for all per-
centile values between 80 and 99 percentile. Note that
the dates of cyclonic storms have been removed in this
analysis (refer to the methodology section). Figure 3 pre-
sents the same values for 80, 85, 90, 93, 95 and 99 percen-
tile as representative cases. The overall distribution
shows that the rainfall is observed to be the highest in
northeast India, especially in Meghalaya and Tripura,

6 SASANKA ET AL.
along the border of Bangladesh, for any percentile. The
lowest intensity precipitation is observed in western
India, that is, Rajasthan, and the leeward side of the
Himalayas, the Ladakh region (Figure 3). Spatial varia-
tions indicate that the southern parts, eastern parts of
India (east coast and northeast) and foothills of the
Himalayas exhibit a noticeable increase in rainfall inten-
sity with the rise in percentiles. For example, the south-
ern parts show rainfall of 1–1.5 mmh−1 at 80 percentile
to 8.5–10 mmh−1 at 99 percentile. Similarly, the rain in
eastern parts varies between 0.5–1 and 8.5–10 mmh−1
from 80 to 99 percentile, while it varies between 1–2 and
>17 mmh−1 for these percentiles range in northeast
parts, respectively (Figure 3a,f). However, such a notice-
able difference is not found in the central, western and
northern parts of India. The rainfall in these regions
mostly varies between 0.1–0.5 and 3–4 mmh−1 for these
percentiles.
Figure 3 indicates variations in rainfall from location
to location during the premonsoon season. Thunderstorm
rainfall depends on various factors such as topography,
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F I G U R E 3 Rainfall
corresponding to different
percentile values over India
[Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
moisture advection, surface heating, vertical profiles of
atmospheric conditions, and so forth, which influence the
strength of thunderstorms (Tyagi, 2007). Therefore, a single
rainfall threshold for detecting premonsoon thunderstorms
all over India cannot be a good approach. Previous studies
have used percentile-based approaches to define extreme
precipitation events (Ali & Mishra, 2017; Shahid, 2011;
Sonkoué et al., 2019; Varikoden & Revadekar, 2020;
Zhang, 2020; Zin et al., 2010). The primary rain-bearing
systems in the premonsoon season in India are tropical
cyclones and thunderstorms (Vinay Kumar & Venkates-
wara Naidu, 2020). Since the cyclone-related days have
been removed from the analysis, the remaining heavy pre-
cipitation may be attributed to thunderstorms. This study
considers different percentiles (80–99 percentile in 1 inter-
val) and verified its performance against in-situ observa-
tions (obtained from thunderstorm reports) to identify the
appropriate percentile threshold to detect thunderstorms.
For the verification, 27 stations are considered during
2019–2021 in the eastern parts of India. There are 2305
thunderstorm occurrences in this region.
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SASANKA ET AL. 7

A thunderstorm event is detected if the rainfall
exceeds the threshold of a particular percentile for each
grid. The IMERG-derived thunderstorm occurrences
are considered in three time windows such as 1, 2 and
3 h, and verified against in situ thunderstorm occur-
rences. In IMERG data, the precipitation values are
assigned to each cloud patch based on self-organizing
feature map clustering analysis and available training
samples of passive microwave sensor precipitation data.
A complete description of the methodology of IMERG
precipitation can be found in Huffman et al. (2019b).
The precipitation is recorded for a particular grid when
the cloud patch covers the majority of that grid box.
The limited spatial extent of thunderstorms might limit
the coverage of the cloud patch in a particular grid of
IMERG data at a given time. Thus, depending on cloud
patch movement and coverage in the grid box, there is
a chance of time lag in identifying thunderstorms
through precipitation. Hence, different time windows
are considered in this analysis.
Figure 4 presents the detected thunderstorms across
eastern India and the corresponding success ratio for dif-
ferent percentile values (from 80 to 90 percentile).
Figure 4a shows that the lower the percentile value, the
more detected cases (black line). The confirmed cases in
different time windows also decrease with an increase
in percentile value (Figure 4a). The contingency analysis
indicates that the success ratio increases with the
increase in the percentile; however, the number of
detected thunderstorms from IMERG decreases. There-
fore, an optimum percentile may be chosen so that the
number of detected events should be sufficiently high
with the least number of false positives. In Figure 4b, the
success ratio (82%) is stable at the 93 percentile value and
identifies/detects a greater number of cases with fewer
false positives, whereas 92 percentile value achieves an
80% success ratio. It is seen that the higher percentile
than 93 percentile would not significantly increase the
success ratio but reduce the total number of detected
events from almost 786 to 200 cases. For example, the
success ratios at 94 and 95 percentile are 81.5 and 82.5%,
respectively, while the number of detected events is
575 (10% reduction) and 527 (18% reduction), respec-
tively, compared to that of 93 percentile. Hence the
93 percentile value is chosen as the threshold for detect-
ing thunderstorms in India. A total of 786 thunderstorm

F I G U R E 4 (a) Success ratio

(%) of detection from GPM
between 2019 and 2021 for
different time windows (±1, ±2,
±3 h) at different rainfall
thresholds between 80 percentile
and 99 percentile. The dotted
line indicates 93 percentile
showing an optimum success
ratio of 82 percentile in
thunderstorm detection.
(b) Total number of
thunderstorm events detected
from GPM (black) between 2019
and 2021 using rainfall
threshold values between
80 percentile and 99 percentile
and number of detected events
that are confirmed through in
situ reports for different time
windows (±1 h, ±2 h, ±3 h)
from thunderstorm period (blue,
orange, green lines, respectively)
[Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
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8 SASANKA ET AL.

events are detected in eastern India, out of which
642 events are confirmed (Figure 4a).
Figure 5a exhibits the station-wise decomposition of
the total number of detected events during 2019–2021
and the corresponding success ratio using the optimum
threshold of 93 percentile. In most locations, a total of
10–30 premonsoon thunderstorms are observed during
this period. The highest number of thunderstorms
(64) are detected in Todong station (station number 1),
with a 75% success ratio. The lowest number of

F I G U R E 5 (a) Station wise decomposition of results from Figure 4 for the detection threshold of 93%. The blue bars represent the total
number of events detected at each station and the black line represents the success ratio of detection at each station. (b) Spatial locations of
the in situ stations used in the study. The colours represent the success ratio of detection of thunderstorms for the corresponding location.
(c) The size of the circles represents the number of thunderstorms recorded in 2016 in each location. The colours represent the percentage of
thunderstorms which are included in the IMERG-derived thunderstorm database. (d) Success ratio of detection of the GPM-derived
thunderstorm database using FY-4A lightning data [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

SASANKA ET AL.
thunderstorms (14) are observed in Puri (station number
24), with a 79% success ratio. The minimum success ratio
(48.5%) is observed in Keonjhargarh (station number 27),
where a total of 33 thunderstorm events have been
observed. In contrast, the maximum success ratio (100%)
is observed in Paradeep (station number 24), where
27 premonsoon thunderstorms were observed in the
3 years. The geographical locations of the in-situ stations,
along with their success ratio, are exhibited in Figure 5b.
The colours red, blue and yellow represent the corre-
sponding success ratio of >80%, 70–80% and <70%,
respectively. Note that, out of 27 locations, a success ratio
of detection greater than 80% is observed in 17 locations,
with 8 locations crossing the 90% mark (stations with red
dots). On the other hand, a success ratio of less than 70%
(yellow dots) is observed in two locations.
The detected thunderstorm database is verified at
93 stations across India in 2016 (Figure 5c). These thun-
derstorm reports for 2016 were collected from the pre-
monsoon thunderstorm reports published by the India
Meteorological Department. Figure 5c illustrates the per-
centage of detected thunderstorms from the IMERG data-
set. The performance of the dataset does not exhibit
significant variations across different locations. Out of
93 locations, >80% of the thunderstorms are detected in
the IMERG dataset at 49 locations. Only at 17 locations,
the percentage of detected thunderstorms is less than
70%. The analysis clearly highlights that the performance
of this methodology is relatively good for most parts of
India, and not confined to a particular region. Note that
the performance of the methodology over western parts
of India is limited, but it may be attributed to a relatively
smaller sample size.
The lightning data obtained from the LMI sensor is
shown for the reported thunderstorms during the period
of 2019–2021 (Figure S1, Supporting Information).
Figure S1a depicts the cumulative count of observed
thunderstorm events reported by the IMD and associated
lightning activity (%) at each station during the period.
Note that the lightning information is drawn within a
50-km radius from the station. Out of 27 locations, >90%
of the thunderstorms are associated with lightning activ-
ity at 18 locations. At eight locations, 80–90% of thunder-
storms exhibited lightning activity in LMI sensor. Only
Sriniketan (location 13) showed a relatively lower light-
ning activity of 68% in LMI sensor. This analysis suggests
that the lightning information derived from the FY-4A
LMI can serve as a reliable piece of information for thun-
derstorm detection.
Figure 5d depicts the success ratio of detection of the
IMERG-derived thunderstorm database using FY-4A
lightning data. Within the focus region, it is observed that
over 31% of the area demonstrates a high success ratio
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9
exceeding 95%. Additionally, another 31% of the area dis-
plays a success ratio ranging between 85 and 95%. The
mean success ratio across the region is calculated to be
84%. Notably, lower success ratios are primarily observed
in the hilly regions of northeast India, which may be
attributed to the challenges posed by the complex terrain
in accurately estimating rainfall in the IMERG dataset.
The climatology of premonsoon thunderstorms
has been prepared using the obtained database of thun-
derstorms. Figure 6a illustrates the average number of
thunderstorm occurrences in the premonsoon season
over India. The highest frequency of thunderstorms
(40–45 eventsyear−1) is observed over the western foot-
hills of the Himalayas, the northeast region, and in the
south, the west coast of Kerala. The eastern part of India
(West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and the northeast coast
of Andhra Pradesh) also experiences a high number
of thunderstorms (15–30 eventsyear−1) during the sea-
son. On the other hand, the western part of India (south-
west Rajasthan, Gujrat, west Madhya Pradesh and
northwest Maharashtra) experiences low frequency
(<5 eventsyear−1) of thunderstorms during the premon-
soon season. This information extracted from the
IMERG-derived premonsoon thunderstorm database
shows a high resemblance to the observations by Zipser
et al. (2006) and Tyagi (2007) (Figure S2). DiGangi et al.
(2022) also presented the climatology of premonsoon
thunderstorm frequency based on lightning observations.
Similar to the present study, they observed a high fre-
quency of thunderstorms in the eastern and southern
parts of the country. However, they did not observe the
large lightning occurrences in the complex orography
region of north and northeast India which is also seen in
Figure 5d. This may indicate the lower-intensity thunder-
storm activity in this region. The thunderstorm dura-
tions, as derived from the IMERG database, are
presented in Figure 6b. The thunderstorm duration is
obtained by calculating the timesteps for which the pre-
cipitation value at a particular gridpoint exceeds the
93 percentile threshold while disregarding any time dif-
ferences of less than 3 h. This derived duration may
slightly differ from the actual because only the periods
where the rainfall exceeds the threshold (93 percentile)
are considered. However, this provides a comparative
understanding of the thunderstorm durations at different
locations across India. It is observed that in most parts of
India, the average thunderstorm duration lies between
1.5 and 3 h. Longer duration (>3 h) thunderstorms are
observed in northeast India and the western foothills of
Himalaya (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh),
with maximum duration (>4.5 h) observed in eastern
Assam and eastern Arunachal Pradesh. Table 2 presents
the mean duration of thunderstorms for the stations
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10 SASANKA ET AL.

F I G U R E 6 Climatology of
(a) average number of detected
thunderstorm events per year
(b) average thunderstorm
duration in hours (c) average
rainfall (mmh−1), and (d) peak
time of day of thunderstorm
occurrences. Note that the time
in (d) is shown in Indian
Standard Time (IST,
UTC + 5:30 h). The climatology
is prepared using the detected
thunderstorms in premonsoon
season for 2001–2021 [Colour
figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

T A B L E 2 Mean thunderstorm duration from station (western and southern Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and
observations during 2019–2021 over the eastern parts of India Mizoram), northern West Bengal and the southwestern
(station distribution and details is in Figure 4b) coast of India (similar to Zipser et al., 2006). Overall, high-
intensity thunderstorms (5–9 mmh−1) are observed over
Mean Total
duration Locations/station thunderstorm
the eastern (West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand)
(h) numbers observed and southern (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and
Karnataka) parts of India. On the contrary, the few thun-
≤0.5 8 77
derstorms observed over mid and western India (Madhya
>0.5–1.5 4, 5, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 1040
Pradesh, north Maharashtra, south Rajasthan and Gujrat)
18, 19, 22, 24, 26
have very low-intensity precipitation (<3 mmh−1).
>1.5–2.5 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 20,21, 23, 857
Figure 6d exhibits the peak hours of premonsoon thunder-
25, 27
storms in India. It can be noticed that the majority of India
>2.5–3.5 3, 13 231 (111, 120,
experiences thunderstorms in the evening hours—between
respectively)
1600 IST (1030 UTC) to 2000 IST (1430 UTC). However,
the foothills of the Himalayas and NE regions receive thun-
derstorms from midnight (0000 IST, 1830 UTC) to early
shown in Figure 5b. Results show that 86% of thunder- morning (0800 IST, 0230 UTC). Table 3 shows the peak
storms at 89% of stations have a duration of 0.5–2.5 h in thunderstorm hours estimated from the station observations
the eastern parts of India and are consistent with the shown in Figure 5b. About 56% of stations experienced 53%
results of Figure 6b. Only Diamond Harbour (station thunderstorms during 1600–2000 IST (1030–1430 UTC) in
no. 8) shows a mean duration of 0.5 h (from 77 events), the eastern parts of India. The secondary peaks of thunder-
while Coochbehar (station 3) and Sriniketan (station 13) storm occurrences (23 and 16%) are observed during
experienced thunderstorms with a duration of 2.8 h (from 1200–1600 IST (0630–1030 UTC) and 2000–2400 IST (1430–
111 events) and 3.1 h (120 events), respectively. 1830 UTC). These observations indicate that thunderstorms
Figure 6c illustrates the mean precipitation intensity of usually form during the evening to early night and support
the detected thunderstorms. Highest intensity (>9 mmh−1) the results obtained in Figure 6d over the eastern parts of
thunderstorms are observed in the northeastern region India.

SASANKA ET AL.
T A B L E 3 Station-wise peak hours of thunderstorm occurrences from observations during 2019–2021 over the eastern parts of India
(station distribution and details is in Figure 4b)
Hours (IST) Hours (UTC) Locations/station numbers
0–4 1830–2230 4, 17
4–8 2230–0230 14
8–12 0230–0630
12–16 0630–1030 1, 5, 18, 19, 27
16–20 1030–1430 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26
20–24 1430–1830 8, 10, 13, 25
3.2 | Composite structure of atmospheric
conditions
This section explores the composite structures of dynami-
cal and thermodynamical parameters obtained from
ERA5 reanalysis data. The composite structures have
been prepared for thunderstorms and compared with sea-
sonal climatology to understand their characteristics and
differences. A statistically significant difference between
the thunderstorm and premonsoon climatology stokes
further confidence in the IMERG-derived thunderstorm
database.
Figure 7a,b illustrates the composites of CAPE for the
premonsoon season and during thunderstorm events,
respectively. The premonsoon mean CAPE exhibits high
values (>1000 Jkg−1) near the majority of the east coast
(West Bengal, Odisha and northeast Andhra Pradesh)
and southwest coast (Kerala and coastal Karnataka) of
the country, making this region prone to thunderstorms
as observed in Figure 6a. Earlier studies also demon-
strated that these regions are highly unstable with CAPE
of >1000 Jkg−1 (Murugavel et al., 2012). The
CAPE values during thunderstorm events are quite high
(2500–3500 Jkg−1) on the east coast of India, comprising
the states of West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh,
and consistent with earlier studies (Bondyopadhyay
et al., 2021; Dalal et al., 2012; Sahu et al., 2020; Uma-
kanth et al., 2019). On the other hand, moderate CAPE
values (1500–2500 Jkg−1) are observed during thunder-
storms in coastal Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya
and Tripura. CAPE of 1000–1500 Jkg−1 is observed for
thunderstorms in Bihar, parts of Jharkhand and parts of
southern India (Kerala and coastal Tamil Nadu). During
thunderstorms, inland south India exhibited CAPE
values between 500 and 1000 Jkg−1. The majority of cen-
tral, west and north India exhibited CAPE values
between 250 and 500 Jkg−1, except for the states of Uttar
Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, where CAPE values ranging
from 500 to 1000 Jkg−1 are observed during thunder-
storms (Ray et al., 2013). Overall results indicate that the
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11
Total thunderstorm observed
125
34
515
1170
361
coastal regions experience more severe thunderstorms
(with high CAPE) than the interior parts of India. The
low moisture incursion into the interior parts of India
limits thunderstorm occurrences (Roy and Roy, 2021;
Singh & Bhardwaj, 2019). In Figure 7c, a comparison is
presented between the thunderstorm and premonsoon
composites of CAPE. It reveals that CAPE values during
thunderstorms are consistently higher by a minimum of
200 Jkg−1 compared to the premonsoon period. This dif-
ference is statistically significant in almost the entire
region of India.
The average CIN values during the premonsoon sea-
son and thunderstorms are illustrated in Figure 7d,e,
respectively. The regions of high thunderstorm frequency
(Figure 6a) exhibit lower CIN in both the premonsoon
climatology (Figure 7d) and thunderstorm climatology
(Figure 7e). CIN less than 250 Jkg−1 is observed in Ker-
ala, northeast regions and western foothills of the Hima-
layas from premonsoon climatology, while it is less than
100 Jkg−1 in thunderstorm climatology. Whereas the
CIN values are comparatively high from seasonal
(>600 Jkg−1) as well as thunderstorm (>400 Jkg−1) cli-
matology in western India, inferring low thunderstorm
frequency (Figure 6a). In the rest of the country, the pre-
monsoon average of CIN values ranges from 100 to
600 Jkg−1. The eastern parts of India (Odisha, West Ben-
gal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand) exhibits a CIN of 400–
500 Jkg−1 from seasonal climatology, while it is much
less for thunderstorms (200–300 Jkg−1) and agrees with
Sahu et al. (2020).
Overall analysis indicates that high CAPE in the pre-
monsoon climatology is not observed in the foothills of
the western Himalayas (<500 Jkg−1) and the northeast-
ern states of India (mostly 500–1000 Jkg−1), where there
is a high number of thunderstorms (Figure 6a). This indi-
cates that the minimum CAPE required for a thunder-
storm development is not uniform all over the country.
Also, note that lower values of CIN are also seen in these
locations. It can be presumed that the local convection in
the orography regions is getting enhanced due to
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12 SASANKA ET AL.

F I G U R E 7 Comparison of thermodynamical indices between thunderstorms against seasonal climatology. Climatology (2001–2021) of
CAPE (Jkg−1) for (a) season, (b) thunderstorms and (c) difference between thunderstorm and season climatology. (d–f), (g–i) and (j–l) Same
as (a–c) but for CIN (Jkg−1), K index (K) and Total totals index (K), respectively. The regions that are not significantly different from the
premonsoon climatology are shaded with grey (e.g., see in (b, e)) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

orography lifting. The combined lifting due to orography
and local convection could support the initiation of more
thunderstorm occurrences (Figures 6a and 7a,b). How-
ever, rainfall activity appears to be correlated with the
strength of the unstable atmosphere (CAPE and CIN).
The thunderstorms produce low to moderate rain in the
absence of high CAPE values, for example, in the western
foothills of the Himalayas (Figure 6c). On the other hand,
if the CAPE value is high and the CIN value is low, the
resultant thunderstorms produce very heavy rainfall
(>9 mmh−1), for example, on the southwest coast and the
northeastern region (Figure 6c). Lower values of CIN
(<250 Jkg−1) from the thunderstorm climatology
(Figure 7e) in central India may support relatively longer-
duration thunderstorms in this region (Figure 6b). This is
because, when CIN values are low, minimal external energy
is needed to trigger convection (Colby Jr, 1984; Doswell
III, 2001). Consequently, the convection initiation can persist
for a prolonged period, even when the kinetic energy in the
surrounding environment is relatively low.

SASANKA ET AL.
The premonsoon KI composite reveals noticeable dif-
ferences between thunderstorms and seasonal climatol-
ogy (Figure 7i). The analysis indicates that the southern,
eastern and northeastern parts (KI > 25–36 K) are more
unstable (Figure 7g,h) (Bondyopadhyay et al., 2021; Sahu
et al., 2020). Note that these regions exhibit at least
10 thunderstorms in one season (Figure 6a) (Tyagi, 2007).
On the other hand, the western parts (Punjab, Rajasthan
and Gujrat), where less than five thunderstorms are seen
to develop, exhibit low KI values (<16 K) in the season
climatology, while it is noticeably higher in the thunder-
storm climatology (28–32 K). Despite low KI (<20 K in
seasonal climatology and <25–30 K in thunderstorm cli-
matology) in the foothills of the western Himalayas, high
thunderstorm frequency is observed. Note that the KI
appears higher (30–36 K) in the thunderstorm climatol-
ogy for most parts of the country (Figure 7h). The values
of KI observed around the country during thunderstorms
agree with previous studies (e.g., Bondyopadhyay
et al., 2021; Sahu et al., 2020; Umakanth et al., 2019). KI
values greater than 35 K are associated with multicell
thunderstorms (Johnson, 1982). The mean KI values on
the eastern coast during thunderstorms are in the range
of 33–36 K, indicating that this region is more prone to
multicell thunderstorms. The premonsoon and thunder-
storm composites of TTI are illustrated in Figure 7j,k. It
shows most parts of India exhibit <46 K TTI from sea-
sonal climatology, while it is noticeably higher by 4–5 K
in the thunderstorm climatology for most regions
(Figure 7l). Similar values of TTI are also reported in ear-
lier studies (Bondyopadhyay et al., 2021; Dalal
et al., 2012; Khole & Biswas, 2007; Ray et al., 2013, 2015;
Sahu et al., 2020; Umakanth et al., 2019). Most impor-
tantly, this difference is more prominent in the eastern
(Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand),
western (Rajasthan and west Maharashtra) and northern
parts (Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajas-
than). In northwest India, the threshold of TTI for thun-
derstorm occurrence is 48 K (Ray et al., 2013), and TTI
values above 50 K are observed during thunderstorms
(Ray et al., 2015). The analysis highlighted that all the ther-
modynamic indices show prominent signatures in the thun-
derstorm composites compared to seasonal composites.
Tyagi et al. (2011) discussed the credibility of different ther-
modynamic indices in predicting thunderstorm occurrences
over eastern parts of India and demonstrated that KI and
TTI are better predictors for thunderstorm occurrence than
CAPE and CIN.
The 500 hPa geopotential height can help to identify
the synoptic-scale weather patterns (Chattopadhyay
et al., 2020; Holton and Hakim, 2013). Therefore, the hor-
izontal cross-section of seasonal climatology of 500-hPa
geopotential height (m) is compared with that during
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13
thunderstorms (Figure 8a,b). The geopotential height is
significantly less during thunderstorms in most parts of
the country (Figure 8b) compared to seasonal climatology
(Figure 8a), except for a few regions in the foothills of the
Himalayas and northeastern parts. The 500 hPa geopo-
tential height anomaly compared to the seasonal clima-
tology is shown in Figure S3. The Kal-Baisakhi region
and southern region exhibit the lowest value (−8 m),
while it is the highest in the western and northern
regions (>40 m). It can be inferred that the thunder-
storms in Kalbhaisaki and southern regions are mostly
local, while the thunderstorms in the western and north-
ern regions are influenced by synoptic-scale events
(e.g., western disturbances). Previous studies have also
demonstrated negative anomalies of 500 hPa geopotential
height in case of western disturbances in this region and
other extreme precipitation events (Cannon et al., 2016;
Davenport & Diffenbaugh, 2021; Saha & Quadir, 2016).
This significant difference of thunderstorm-associated
500 hPa geopotential height with that of the seasonal fur-
ther builds up the confidence in the thunderstorm data-
sets derived through IMERG rainfall.
Figure 8c,d illustrates the composites of vertical veloc-
ity averaged between 600 and 300 hPa for the season and
thunderstorm events, respectively. Note that the thunder-
storm composites include the vertical velocity at the initi-
ation/peak or during the initiation to the mature stage.
The omega velocity in ERA5 is converted to vertical
velocity using the Metpy package (May et al., 2022). The
positive and negative signs of vertical velocity represent
upward and downward directions, respectively. The sea-
sonal climatology shows negative values (up to
−1 cms−1) in most of the country, indicating a stable
atmosphere, except for a few regions in the western
Himalayas, Kerala and northeast India (Figure 8c). These
positive vertical velocities in the seasonal climatology
may be due to orography. Strong upward velocities
(>5 cms−1) in thunderstorm composites indicate more
vigorous convection in thunderstorm prone regions such
as the northeast, south and eastern parts of India. At the
same time, the negative velocities are weaker (−0.5 to
0 cms−1) in these regions (Figure 8c) and consistent with
regions of low thunderstorm activity (Figure 6a). For
much of the country, the positive vertical velocity range
between 2 and 3 cms−1 in the thunderstorm climatology.
It is noteworthy that strong upward velocities
(>7 cms−1) are present in the foothills of the western
Himalayas and the northeast region, despite low CAPE
values (<500 Jkg−1) during thunderstorms (Figure 7b),
which again indicates the presence of orographic lifting.
On the other hand, the high positive values (>3 cms−1)
in eastern and southern India, superimposes with high
CAPE values (>1000 Jkg−1) in the region, indicating a
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14 SASANKA ET AL.

F I G U R E 8 Same as
Figure 7a,b but for (a, b) 500 hPa
geopotential height (m) and (c,
d) mean vertical velocity
(cms−1) [Colour figure can be
viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 9 Characteristic
changes in mean vertical
velocity (cms−1) of the
thunderstorms (red) and
premonsoon season (blue) for
regions of different
thunderstorm characteristics
during 2001–2021. The regions
are shown in Figure 1. The
shading indicates the 95%
confidence intervals [Colour
figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

SASANKA ET AL.
dominance of local scale convection. It may be noted that
the horizontal resolution of ERA5 data may not be suffi-
cient to resolve the individual branches of updrafts and
downdrafts. However, the signature of convection can be
presented in the averaged vertical velocity value within
the grid (Calvo-Sancho et al., 2022; Morgenstern
et al., 2023). The thunderstorms composites of vertical
velocities are significantly lower than the previous obser-
vational (e.g., Adler & Fenn, 1979; Marshall et al., 1995)
and modelling studies (e.g., Ogura & Takahashi, 1971;
Osuri et al., 2017; Rotunno, 1981) and it could be mainly
due to the coarser resolution of the ERA5 analysis and
the layer of the averaging.
3.3 | Regional analysis of atmospheric
composite structures
Considering the spatial distribution of thunderstorm
occurrences, trends and thermodynamic indices, the
Indian region is broadly divided into nine domains
(shown in Figure 1) to study the vertical structures of
F I G U R E 1 0 Same as
Figure 9 but for mean specific
humidity (gkg−1) [Colour figure
can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
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15
thunderstorm triggers (vertical velocity and moisture).
The composites of these thunderstorm triggers have been
prepared for the season (blue line) and thunderstorm
events (red line) for all the domains. The 95% confidence
levels corresponding to each pressure level have been
shaded. This analysis is intended to show the differences
in vertical structures of thunderstorm triggers based on
their region of occurrence across India.
Figure 9 shows the composites of vertical velocity for
the season and thunderstorm events. In all domains,
stronger upward velocities during thunderstorms are
observed compared to the premonsoon, building up con-
fidence in the IMERG-derived thunderstorm database. In
most of India, downward velocities in the upper levels
(600–200 hPa) persist in the premonsoon season, indicat-
ing a stable atmosphere (Figure 9d–i). Seasonal climatol-
ogy indicates upward velocities in the upper levels in
domains 1, 2 and 3 of complex orography regions, unlike
in other domains. Hence, orography lifting may contrib-
ute to the positive vertical velocities. The vertical velocity
composites for thunderstorm events are significantly
higher in these domains (>4 cms−1) compared to other

16
domains. For instance, strong upward velocities (6.3 cms−1)
during thunderstorms are observed in d2, the northwestern
Himalayan region. The vertical velocity profiles during thun-
derstorms are similar in most of the domains (d4–d9), with
a similar maximum value (2–4 cms−1) being observed
between 600 and 200 hPa. It is noted that thunderstorm
rainfall differs in these domains. To address the rainfall dif-
ferences, the vertical profiles of moisture in these domains
are further analysed.
The average specific humidity profiles of thunderstorm
events (red) in each domain are compared with the season
climatology (blue) in Figure 10. All domains exhibit clear
separation from surface to 400 hPa, showing the maximum
difference in the lower layers. The orography-dominated
domains (d1, d2 and d3) show fewer variations between
season and thunderstorm composites than other domains.
The d1 (northeast region) has the highest moisture content
among all inland regions (d1, d2, d7, d8 and d9), which
can be attributed to the low-level transport of moist air
from the Bay of Bengal (Choudhury et al., 2020). It is note-
worthy that the specific humidity in d2 (western Hima-
layas) and d8 (northwest) are less even during
thunderstorm events compared to other domains. The
lower atmosphere is moist (≳13–15 gkg−1) in the case of
thunderstorm-prone coastal regions/domains (d3, d4, d5
and d6), with 2–3 gkg−1 higher moisture content during
thunderstorm events. However, composite rainfall amounts
are not similar in these regions; for example, the rainfall
intensities in d5 and d6 are not similar to those in d3 and
d4 (refer to Figure 6c).
The analysis of dynamical and thermodynamic condi-
tions helps to understand the uneven rainfall intensities
across the country. For example, the low moisture avail-
ability in d2 limits the rainfall intensity in the region
(Figure 6c) despite having the most vigorous updrafts dur-
ing convection/thunderstorms (Figure 9b). On the other
hand, the d4 region with more moisture content
(16.3 gkg−1 in the lowest level) and vertical wind speeds
(3.5 cms−1) has seen high rainfall activity (6–8 mmh−1)
during thunderstorms. In the d5 region, though the mois-
ture profile (e.g., 16.3 gkg−1 in the lowest level) is almost
similar, relatively weaker updrafts magnitude
−1
(2.8 cms ) may be one of the reasons for low rain inten-
sity (4–6 mmh−1). Interestingly, the high moisture content
(13–17 gkg−1) and strong updrafts (>4 cms−1) result in
heavy rainfall (>7 mm) in d1 and d3 regions.
4 | C ON C L U S I ON
Thunderstorms cause severe damage to lives, properties
and livelihoods. However, a major hurdle in the study of
convective thunderstorms in India is the unavailability
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SASANKA ET AL.
of sufficient amounts of in situ data. This research dem-
onstrates the usefulness of high-resolution IMERG pre-
cipitation to prepare the premonsoon thunderstorm
database for India, the primary objective of the study.
The thunderstorm-associated rainfall over India
depends on the local features and varies substantially
from location to location. The study follows a Eulerian
approach for the detection of thunderstorms based on the
percentile method. The 93 percentile rainfall as
the threshold for detection achieved a success ratio of
82% for eastern India during 2019–2021. It is also found
that 84% of the thunderstorms in eastern and northeast-
ern India are associated with lightning activity during the
same period. The climatological analysis performed on
the database indicates a similar thunderstorm frequency
distribution as observed by Tyagi (2007), with the highest
number of thunderstorms (40–45 eventsyear−1) in the
orography regions, followed by the Kal-Baisakhi region.
Orography regions have seen more thunderstorm occur-
rences because of combined lifting processes due to
orography and local convection, even in the presence of
a low CAPE (unstable) atmosphere. The majority of
India experiences thunderstorms in the evening time
(1600–2000 IST, 1030–1430 UTC). Rainfall >7 mmh−1
is observed in the northeastern region, southwest coast,
and the eastern states (Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattis-
garh and Jharkhand) of India. These regions are
identified with a more unstable atmosphere (CAPE of
1500–3500 Jkg−1).
The minimum (maximum) CAPE (CIN) value
required for thunderstorm development is not uniform
throughout the country. The variations in rainfall inten-
sity throughout India can be explained using the corre-
sponding CAPE and CIN values. Unlike CAPE and CIN,
the composites of KI and TTI are mostly uniform
throughout the country, where >30 K (>44–46 K) values
of KI (TTI) indicate thunderstorms. The longer-duration
thunderstorms (>2.5 h) observed in central India, may be
explained by the low CIN values (<250 Jkg−1) during
thunderstorms. The 500-hPa geopotential height anomaly
during thunderstorms is highest (>40 m) in the north-
western parts of India, indicating the influence of
synoptic-scale events. The composite analysis of CAPE,
CIN, KI, TTI, and 500-hPa geopotential height exhibits
significant differences between thunderstorms and sea-
sonal climatology. Stronger updrafts and higher moisture
availability are prominent features during thunderstorms
compared to seasonal climatology.
The study provides an extensive database of premon-
soon thunderstorms for the Indian region, which could
be used by the community to conduct in depth research
on premonsoon thunderstorms in India. This large
database may be useful to understand the changes in

SASANKA ET AL.
wind-guests, lightning activity and so forth over the
regions where the observed thunderstorm reports are
lacking. The composites of dynamical and thermodynam-
ical characteristics of thunderstorms are vital in the avia-
tion sector. However, the limitation of the study is that
the database is dependent on rainfall, and it can be
updated using other remote-sensing data such as light-
ning, Doppler weather radar reflectivity and so forth.
A U T H O R C ON T R I B U T I O NS
Talukdar Sasanka: Conceptualization; methodology;
data curation; formal analysis; visualization;
writing – original draft; writing – review and editing.
Kumari Priya: Writing – review and editing; data cura-
tion; formal analysis. Krishna K. Osuri: Conceptualiza-
tion; methodology; formal analysis; supervision; funding
acquisition; writing – original draft; writing – review and
editing. Dev Niyogi: Methodology; formal analysis;
writing – review and editing.
ACK NO WLE DGE MEN TS
The authors acknowledge the financial support from
THUMP Project (No. MoES/16/09/2018-RDEAS-
THUMP-7) supported by the Earth System Science Orga-
nization, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India. Dev
Niyogi acknowledges support from the US National Sci-
ence Foundation (AGS-1902642), the University of Texas
at Austin Bridging Barriers Initiative, and the John
E. “Brick” Elliott Professorship Endowment. The authors
also acknowledge the European Center for Medium
Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and National Aero-
nautical and Space Administration (NASA) for making
ERA and IMERG datasets available freely. IMD is
acknowledged for making storm reports available. The
National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteoro-
logical Administration are acknowledged for freely pro-
viding the FY-4A LMI data. Authors are grateful for the
computational capacities of the Google Earth Engine.
The authors express their gratitude towards the two
anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments which
significantly enhanced the clarity of the manuscript.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that support the findings of this study are freely
available from the website. ECMWF reanalysis (ERA5)
datasets are available at https://www.ecmwf.int/en/
forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5/. The GPM
IMERG dataset is available at https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
datasets/GPM_3IMERGHH_06/summary. Software/
programs related to the study may be available from the
corresponding author upon request. The in situ thunder-
storm reports are obtained from Regional Meteorological
Centre Kolkata, India (https://www.imdkolkata.gov.in/
10970088, 0, Downloaded from https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.8228 by University Of Texas Libraries, Wiley Online Library on [29/08/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
17
acwc/fdpdata/view). The FY-4A LMI data is collected
from the National Satellite Meteorological Center website
(https://fy4.nsmc.org.cn/nsmc/en/instrument/LMI.html).
ORCID
Talukdar Sasanka https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5567-
4545
Kumari Priya https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7635-7204
Krishna K. Osuri https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9088-9656
Dev Niyogi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1848-5080
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