Association Of Spatial And Temporal Windthrow Distribution With Convective Parameters And Lightning Density In Russia

Windthrow is one of the major causes of forest loss in most forest types, depending on the frequency and intensity of severe winds and forest vulnerability. This study focuses on analyzing of the association of the spatio-temporal distribution of windthrow with the atmospheric convective parameters and lightning activity in the Russian forest zone for the period 2001-2020. The windthrow data include 1816 events that are associated with tornadoes and non-tornadic convective windstorms and are obtained from the previously developed satellite-derived database. Convective parameters are calculated based on the ERA5 reanalysis, while the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) is used for lightning data. It is found that both the spatial distribution and the interannual variability of windthrow events are significantly correlated with the corresponding variability of convective parameters, especially with the significant tornado parameter (STP), both in the European Russia (ER) and in Siberia. The spatial correlation between windthrow events and lightning density is also significant, with a stronger relationship in the ER than in Siberia. For inter-annual variability, it is also found a strong relationship between the number of days with supercritical STP values and the total windthrow area per season. Our results highlight STP and lightning density as informative predictors that can be used as characteristics of windthrow in the Russian forests and for further estimation of associated risks, which is important for sustainable forest management.