Zhengzhou observed 5307 cloud flashes a day! Why is lightning so dense?

On July 25, 2022, extreme weather appeared again in Zhengzhou, and suddenly there was a thunderstorm. Many citizens could see that the sky turned black in a few minutes with the naked eye, especially like a sci-fi blockbuster. Because in July of 20021,Zhengzhou suffered a disaster because of a rainstorm, so this rainstorm aroused everyone's vigilance. The shape of clouds and the frequency of lightning flashing in the sky that day were very abnormal. On July 27, the relevant departments also analyzed the weather and found that the lightning that can be observed in Zhengzhou reached 5307 times in one day, which was very shocking.

When the weather was abnormal that day, many citizens photographed the scene of lightning flashing and directly saw the Zhongyuan Pagoda in Zhengzhou being struck by lightning, so the meteorological department also responded specifically to this phenomenon. According to the data analysis, this strong convective weather occurred because the local area was affected by the westerly short wave, which was a very obvious squall weather.

Before this weather appeared, due to the influence of warm and humid air flow in Henan, the sky was clear and partly cloudy, and then the temperature and humidity in the nearby area continued to rise, accumulating a lot of water vapor and unstable energy in the air. Moreover, because the cold air above the sky keeps moving eastward, the atmosphere above is very unstable, which just forms convection with the cold air in the south of Shanxi, so there will be thunderstorms and strong winds in Zhengzhou, Henan Province in a short time, and there will be heavy precipitation and even hail.

The appearance of squall line is characterized by small scale, short period, width of about 20~50 kilometers and duration of more than several hours. The squall line carries a lot of energy, which makes the weather diversified. There may be thunderstorms and strong winds, a lot of rain and hail in a short time, and there may be tornadoes, which may appear alone or together.