Synonyms
Definition
Dry thunderstorms are defined as cumulonimbus clouds that produce cloud-to-ground lightning strikes with little to no precipitation reaching the ground. The “dry” in dry thunderstorms is relative as there is no standardized threshold for precipitation accumulation to classify a thunderstorm as being “dry.” The National Weather Service and peer-reviewed literature often use <2.5 mm (0.1 in.) and occasionally <6.35 mm (0.25 in.) to delineate dry thunderstorms Storm Prediction Center (SPC) (Nauslar et al. 2013).
Introduction
Dry thunderstorms, also referred to as dry lightning, produce cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning with little to no rainfall reaching the surface. While there is no fundamental difference between how typical thunderstorms and dry thunderstorms form, the distinction arises from the environments they develop in and the resultant precipitation totals. Dry thunderstorms form in environments that have marginally...
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Nauslar, N.J., Hatchett, B.J. (2019). Dry Thunderstorms. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_176-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_176-1
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