Surface electric measurements obtained beneath thunderstorms with almost similar characteristics at a station located close to the Himalayan foothills in northeastern India have been analyzed. Observations suggest many severe thunderstorms occur over this region during late evening/night hours. Moisture conversion at foothills due to radiative cooling at mountaintops during nighttime may be responsible for triggering of such deep convections over Guwahati during the pre-monsoon season. Read more... (S D Pawar, V Gopalakrishnan and P Murugavel, Earth, Planets and Space, Vol. 67 Apr. 2015)

Unprecedented, widespread, and devastating hailstorms occurred during February and March 2014 over north peninsular India (study area). A diagnostic study has been carried out to understand the causes for the same. Mechanism of the hailstorm formation and sustenance for a long time has been constructed. Unusual southward displacement and persistence of the midlatitude westerlies, convective instability, buoyancy from latent heat of ice deposition and synoptic scale updrafts produce widespread hailstorms. Read more... (J. R. Kulkarni, S. B. Morwal, S. G. Narkhedkar, R. S. Maheskumar, B. Padmakumari,S. Sunitha Devi, M. Rajeevan, JGR-Atmos, Apr 2015)

The Western Ghats exert a strong effect on lightning activity increasing it between the coastline and the Western Ghats and decreasing it on the immediate lee side of the mountain range during the onset and withdrawal phases of the Indian southwest monsoon. During the monsoon season, however, the lightning activity dramatically falls to very low values. The air pollution generated by the Mumbai city seems to have a decreasing effect on the lightning activity immediately east of it. Read more... (A.K. Kamra, A.A. Nair, Atm. Res., Vol 160, 15 June 2015)