Comment: The following article is an abridged translation of an article published by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.


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© smhi.se
This June set a record in lightning strikes having currents greater than 5000 A. The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) reported on July 4th that
During June 2011, the lightning localization system registered around 122,000 discharges to the ground with electric currents greater than 5000 A. This is the greatest number registered during June month since the monitoring system began in 2002. The previous highest value was around 52,000 registrations, which was noted in 2002.
They note the significance of this in stating that the average number of these discharges registered for a whole year is 170,000, compared to 122,000 this June alone. Occurrences of lightning in June exceeded the total for 2005, as well as for 2007.

114,000 discharges took place in just one week, from June 6th to June 12th. June 7th alone had 41,000 discharges, a new record set for a single day.

Looking at the pattern in previous years, SMHI notes that this July may bring an even greater number of strong discharges, given the July highs of 169,000 in 2003 and 126,000 in 2010.

Thus far two have died from lightning strikes in Sweden this year.