The impact of land cover on lightning and convective precipitation in the summertime over Europe was analysed using five-year data. Lightning data were obtained with the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) at a 0.5° × 0.5° spatial resolution and the convective precipitation data were calculated by the NCEP/DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis at a ∼1.9° × 1.9° spatial resolution. Data concerning land cover were obtained from the Global Land Cover Facility, although the original 14 categories were grouped into seven categories (water, forest, shrubland, grassland, cropland, bare ground and urban). For all latitude ranges, forested areas tend to increase convective activity during the warm period of the year, and the general effect of shrubland areas is to suppress convective activity. The behaviour of convection in relation to grasslands and croplands depends on latitude. At low latitudes both vegetation types tend to increase convection during the summer. At high latitudes, grassland and cropland areas appear to be associated with the opposite effect in relation to convection: grass suppresses and crops enhance it. Finally, bare soil tends to decrease convective activity. These results seem to be related to the impact of vegetation on soil moisture and roughness. In general, vegetation areas associated with high soil moisture contents and high values in roughness length tend to enhance convective activity.

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The city of La Plata and its surroundings are a very populated area, which has an important Industrial Pole and intense traffic activity but environmental studies have been rare so far. This article presents and discusses the importance of wind frequencies and velocities for the transport of air pollutants. The study emphasizes the importance of knowing wind patterns on an hourly basis that can be helpful for designing a monitoring network as well as for preventing exposure to pollutants. Correlation between monthly SO 2 concentrations and wind frequencies and velocities are discussed for a particular set of directions NNW-NE that carry pollutants from industrial sources toward populated areas. As a result, averaged wind frequencies have been found to be very important for determining patterns influencing pollutants transport; the influence of averaged velocities has shown low variability (hourly and monthly). Hierarchical cluster analysis applied to wind roses provided a useful approach for analyzing and describing the general daily occurrence of winds.

A study of electrically severe thunderstorms (>2000 cloud-to-ground flashes per day) in the Spanish territory of Castilla-Leon (northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula) has been performed using 11 years (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) of data. These episodes were classified according to average upper-level synoptic patterns. Seven synoptic patterns emerged: shortwave and very shortwave troughs, three types of lows, cyclonic vortex and ridge. The moisture content at low levels and static instability were also considered. In general, all the episodes were associated with instability and moderate moisture (11 g kg −1 for the average mixing ratio at 925 hPa). The electrically severe thunderstorms associated with five synoptic patterns (shortwave and very shortwave troughs, and three types of lows) generated hail, strong winds, and intense precipitation. By contrast, the cyclonic vortex and ridge synoptic types were not associated with severe weather.

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