Relationships between lightning and rainfall intensities during rainy events in Cyprus

Abstract. The objective of this work is to study the relationship between the number of lightning recorded by a network of lightning detectors and the amount of rainfall recorded by the network of automatic rain gauges, during rainy events in Cyprus. This study aims at revealing possible temporal and spatial "relationships" between rainfall and lightning intensities. The data used are based on the available records of hourly rainfall data and the "associated" lightning data, with respect to both time and space. The search for temporal and spatial relationships between lightning and rainfall is made by considering various time-lags between lightning and rainfall, and by varying the area around the rain gauge which the associated lightning data set refers to. The methodology adopted in this paper is a statistical one and rainy events registered under the European Project "FLASH" are examined herein.