Invited perspectives: Thunderstorm intensification from mountains to plains
Abstract. Severe thunderstorms are among the most damaging and impactful weather phenomena. In Europe, notable clusters occur in the vicinity of complex terrain. These areas not only experience frequent thunderstorms but also show a strong climate change signal with an increasing storm frequency. Despite the relevance of the subject, our understanding of severe convection in complex terrain, particularly in a changing climate, remains incomplete. This White Paper presents the current state of the research on thunderstorms in complex orography, covering storm severity, modification of pre-storm environments, convection initiation, storm-scale interactions with complex terrain, impactful hazards, numerical modeling and forecasting, climatologies and climate change signals, and innovative storm observations. Highlighting the gaps in our understanding, this review underscores the need for a coordinated European field campaign on thunderstorm intensification from mountains to plains (TIM). Initial plans for the TIM campaign, developed by the participating authors and institutions of this article, are briefly outlined. Obtaining coordinated and dense data on orographically driven storms is a key step toward improving warnings, forecasts, future climate projections, and adaptation measures.
Authors
- Pieter Groenemeijer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4223-5831)
- Tomáš Púčik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4983-0449)
- Francesco Battaglioli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9419-586X)
- Katharina Schröer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2535-6658)
- Alois M. Holzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9800-5250)
- Lisa Schielicke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9083-4591)
- Christoph Gatzen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3464-2170)
- Bogdan Antonescu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1788-8424)
- Jannick Fischer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4314-7331)
- Monika Feldmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8123-5415)
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- Western University (CA)
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (CH)
- University of Bonn (DE)
- University of Bucharest (RO)
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (US)
- H.B. Fuller (United States) (US)
- European Severe Storms Laboratory (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Natural hazards and earth system sciences
- Published
- 2025-08-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-2629-2025
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.50
Funders
- University of Bern
- Instytut Meteorologii i Gospodarki Wodnej – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy
- KU Leuven
- Akademie Věd České Republiky
- Università degli Studi di Genova
- Université de Toulouse
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
- Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
- European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
- Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine
- Agencia Estatal de Meteorología