How Does a Typical Lightning Flash Estimated Thunder Day Look Like Over the Indian Region in the Period 2019–2023?

ABSTRACT Thunderstorms and lightning are the deadliest natural disasters in the Indian subcontinent. A better understanding of the regional and seasonal features of thunderstorm occurrences can provide valuable information on mitigating hazards in the region. The study demonstrated an improved method of understanding thunderstorm occurrences and thunder day (TD), an essential climate variable over the Indian region, using the total lightning data sets from the last 5 years. Total lightning data sets are used to find the Lightning flash rate density (FRD) in 0.05° grid resolution. Total lightning data are used to calculate TD, with the condition that a grid is considered to have a TD if it records at least two lightning flashes ensuring that TD corresponds to grids covering an area of approximately 15 km radius. A simultaneous comparison of lightning FRD and TD distribution is done in annual, interannual, seasonal, and monthly time scales spatially and statistically. The results reveal that the maximum TD observes 130–150 days in a year over a few places, including North‐west Himalayan Jammu (Rajori), Southern peninsular Kerala (Kottayam), and north Odisha (Mayurbhanj). The north‐western Himalayan foothills show the maximum TD but not the maximum FRD. The maximum number of TD in the study surpassed all the previous studies made by the station data sets where maximum TD remains in the range of 120–130 days per year. The minimum occurrences of the TD (< 15 days) show over Ladakh, a few parts of Arunachal, and the Kutch Gujarat region. Eastern part of the Indian region observes the most intense and frequent thunderstorms in terms of the number of lightning flash discharges per thunder day.