Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University - Netherlands
Parameters, such as the Lifted index, the SWEAT index, and Convective Available potentail energy (CAPE), are used all over the world as forecast tools to estimate the probability of thunderstorm occurrence. However, the performance of these parameters or indicators has never really been evaluated and compared, for lack of trustworthy measurements of thunderstorm occurrence. A 10-year (1990-1999) high resolution dataset from the ATD lightning detection system operated by the Royal Meteorlogical Office is now available. The data from this system appears to provide a reasonably good thunderstorm climatology. Therefore, it is now possible to evaluate the performance of the thunderstorm indicators. We would like to present the results of this evaluation.