A systematic evaluation of the performance of the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) over the Tibetan Plateau is conducted using data from the Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Location System (CGLLS) developed by the State Grid Corporation of China for 2013–15 and lightning data from the satellite-based Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) for 2014–15. The average spatial location separation magnitudes in the midsouthern Tibetan Plateau (MSTP) region between matched WWLLN and CGLLS strokes and over the whole Tibetan Plateau between matched WWLLN and LIS flashes were 9.97 and 10.93 km, respectively. The detection efficiency (DE) of the WWLLN rose markedly with increasing stroke peak current, and the mean stroke peak currents of positive and negative cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning detected by the WWLLN in the MSTP region were 62.43 and −56.74 kA, respectively. The duration, area, and radiance of the LIS flashes that were also detected by the WWLLN were 1.27, 2.65, and 4.38 times those not detected by the WWLLN. The DE of the WWLLN in the MSTP region was 9.37% for CG lightning and 2.58% for total lightning. Over the Tibetan Plateau, the DE of the WWLLN for total lightning was 2.03%. In the MSTP region, the CG flash data made up 71.98% of all WWLLN flash data. Based on the abovementioned results, the ratio of intracloud (IC) lightning to CG lightning in the MSTP region was estimated to be 4.05.

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Convective weather such as thunderstorms and rain is one of the main causes of irregular flights including delays, cancelations, turnbacks and diversions. In China, summer (April–September) flights accounted for 94% of irregular flights due to convective weather in 2016–2019. The impact of summer convective weather conditions on irregular flights is however not well understood. In this research, we find that thunderstorms, as indicated by the lifted index (LI), are greatly related to these irregular flights over Southeast China. The global climate model ensemble indicates there will be robust increases in the occurrence of convective weather environments in response to further global warming. We also find that as the LI is decreasing over time, the likelihood of thunderstorm-related irregular flights is increasing. Such an increase indicates there will be a 17% increase in irregular flights by the end of the century.