More lightning strikes in Switzerland
In Switzerland, a total of 48,057 lightning strikes were recorded from June 1 to August 31, 2023. In the summer of 2022, only about 37,000 lightning strikes were recorded during this period. With 7.0 strikes per km2, the highest lightning density was in the municipality of Paradiso in the canton of Ticino, followed by Liedertswil, Basel-Land, with 6.59 lightning strikes per km².
The Siemens Lightning Information Service (BLIDS) registers data from so-called ground lightning. These are those lightning strikes that actually reach the ground and thus pose a danger to people, animals and infrastructure facilities. According to information, the service is used by about a hundred customers in Switzerland. These include insurance companies, industrial companies and fire departments, but also golf course operators, organizers of music festivals, amusement parks and private individuals.
The following localities recorded the most impacts, broken down by state region:
- Northwestern Switzerland: Liedertswil/BL, 6.59 lightning bolts per km²
- Eastern Switzerland: Märstetten/TG, 5.32 lightning bolts per km²
- Southern Switzerland: Paradiso/TI, 7.0 flashes per km2
- Western Switzerland: Fresens/NE, 5.04 lightning bolts per km²
- Central Switzerland: Sisikon/UR, 4.18 lightning bolts per km²
- Greater Zurich area: Hittnau/ZH, 4.00 lightning bolts per km²
The Siemens system also measures so-called cloud lightning, which does not reach the ground and does not cause any damage. In the three summer months of 2023, a total of 277,668 lightning bolts were counted.
BLIDS uses around 150 connected measuring stations in the European network EUCLID (European Cooperation for Lightning Detection). In addition to the BLIDS infrastructure in Switzerland, the experts of the lightning information service also manage the measuring network in Germany, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, according to the statement.
Determination accurate to 100 meters
The high accuracy of BLIDS is based on the Time-of-Arrival (TOA) principle, according to the media release. The lightning location is calculated from the difference between the times recorded in the receivers. Thanks to the rapid increase in computing and storage capacities, BLIDS is succeeding in transmitting data ever faster and more precisely. "Whereas it used to take up to 30 seconds for information about a lightning strike to be retrievable in the system, today it takes only ten," explains Stephan Thern, head of the Lightning Information Service. "Today, we can pinpoint about half of the lightning strikes to within less than 100 meters." The information could be relevant for operators of high-voltage power lines, for example. That way, if a line goes down, it can be quickly determined whether lightning or a fallen tree was responsible for the power outage, he said. "If we confirm the lightning strike, the line can be brought back online much faster," Thern said. To make lightning data available to customers on their PCs and mobile devices, the lightning service also provides cloud-based applications, he said.
With the free BLIDS spy, interested parties can register at www.blids.de quickly and up-to-date information about lightning strikes in Switzerland.
