The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) Global Lightning Climatology (WGLC) and time series

The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) Global Lightning Climatology (WGLC) and time series

This repository contains global lightning stroke density and stroke power calculated from georeferenced stroke count data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network WWLLN. The real-time raw stroke count data were reprocessed by WWLLN to remove artifacts and improve geolocation, which resulted in the "AE" georeferenced and timestamped stroke count data. These data were then gridded at 0.5 degree 5 arc-minute and hourly resolution, converted into density, and corrected for detection efficiency using the WWLLN global gridded detection efficiency maps. Mean, median, and standard deviation of stroke power are also provided at 30-minute resolution. The corrected hourly rasters were then aggregated into daily and monthly totals and into a multi-year monthly mean climatology. The data cover the period 2010-2025 and will be updated in the coming years.

For a complete description of the data see:

Kaplan, J. O., & Lau, K. H.-K. (2021). The WGLC global gridded lightning climatology and time series. Earth System Science Data, 13(7), 3219-3237. doi:10.5194/essd-13-3219-2021

Kaplan, J. O., & Lau, K. H.-K. (2022). World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) Global Lightning Climatology (WGLC) and time series, 2022 update. Earth System Science Data, 14(12), 5665-5670. doi:10.5194/essd-14-5665-2022

The data are stored in a NetCDF (version 4) files and have the following attributes:

• Spatial extent: Entire Earth
• Spatial reference system (SRS): Unprojected (geographic, WGS84)
• Spatial resolution: half-degree and 5 arc-minute
• Temporal extent: 2010-2024
• Temporal resolution: daily and monthly*1,2

Variables included in this release

• Lightning density (strokes km-2 day-1)
• Lightning mean, median, and standard deviation of stroke power (MW, 30 arc-minute version only)

For further details, see https://github.com/ARVE-Research/WGLC

1*5844 elements in the time dimension for daily data; 192 for monthly data; 12 for the climatology.

2*Daily fields currently available at 30-minute resolution only.

The WWLLN Global Lightning Climatology and timeseries (WGLC) © 2026 by Jed O. Kaplan is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0