A climatology of Australian elevated thunderstorms derived from sounding and reanalysis data

Elevated thunderstorms (ES) source air from above a stable near-surface boundary layer. Like surface-based thunderstorms (SS), ES can produce heavy rain and snow, large hail and damaging winds. No Australian ES climatologies are available. The seasonal occurrence of Australian ES remain unknown. An equivalent potential temperature and lightning based discriminator was applied to ERA Interim reanalyses. A seven year Australian ES and SS climatology was developed. ES are primarily an austral spring and summer phenomena, occurring most often overnight, in the Great Australian Bight and Southern Ocean, as well as affecting southern Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria.