The charge distribution of some cells in three winter thunderstorms in the Hokuriku region of Japan is investigated based on Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) flash data. The vertical arrangements of charge regions involved in lightning discharges suggest diverse charge patterns, including quad‐polar, tripole, positive dipole, inverted dipole, and inverted tripole. The riming electrification between graupel and ice crystals or their aggregations are thought to be responsible for the electrification of most cells. The charging process between snow/aggregates and ice crystals may be responsible for some inverted charge structure that occurred above 0 °C isotherm and accompanied with weak radar echoes. Convection indicated by the vertical development of radar reflectivity appears crucial to shaping the diverse charge distribution patterns by determining which charging mechanisms occur and where; it also influences changes in height or even the disappearance of the charge regions. The charged cores are distributed from 0.7‐ to 5.3‐km heights and 2‐ to –31‐ °C temperatures, while the distances between adjacent charged cores with opposite polarities change between 0.2 and 3.4 km, with a mean of 1.3 km. The mean flash duration and horizontal distance are 425.0 ms and 19.8 km, respectively. The average height, temperature, and power of flash initiations are 2.8 km, −11.9 °C, and 15.6 dBW, respectively.

Extreme precipitation is an issue of worldwide concern, but its microphysics remain elusive. The convective and microphysical characteristics of extreme precipitation features (EPFs) in a monsoon coastal area (South China) are investigated mainly using 2‐year observations from a dual‐polarization radar and distrometers. The EPFs are accompanied by a broad range of convective intensity, and categorized into the “intense”, “moderate”, and “weak” convection accounting for 17.3%, 48.6% and 34.1% of the total population, respectively. The EPFs with weaker convection show weakened size sorting and less breakup of large raindrops, but a larger ratio of liquid water path to ice water path and more prominent coalescence warm‐rain process. All the three categories are dominated by the coalescence in the liquid‐phase processes, and have much more populous raindrops than the “continental” with a mean size larger than the “maritime” regime. These results improve our understanding of extreme precipitation from the microphysical perspective.

Lightning data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network along with tropical cyclone (TC) track and intensity data from the China Meteorological Administration are used to study lightning activity in TCs over the northwest Pacific from 2005 to 2009 and to investigate the relationship between inner core lightning and TC intensity changes. Lightning in TCs over the northwest Pacific is more likely to occur in weak storms at tropical depression (10.8–17.1 m s⁻¹) and tropical storm (17.2–24.4 m s⁻¹) intensity levels, in agreement with past studies of Atlantic hurricanes. The greatest lightning density (LD) in the inner core appears in storms undergoing an intensity change of 15–25 m s⁻¹ during the next 24 h. Lightning is observed in all storm intensity change categories: rapid intensification (RI), average intensity change (AIC), and rapid weakening (RW). The differences in LD between RI and RW are largest in the inner core, and the LD for RI cases is larger than for RW cases in the inner core (0–100 km). Lightning activity there, rather than in the outer rainbands, may be a better indicator for RI prediction in northwest Pacific storms. There was a marked increase in the lightning density of inner core during the RI stage for Super Typhoon Rammasun (2008). Satellite data for this storm show that the RI stage had the highest cloud top height and coldest cloud top temperatures, with all the minimum black body temperature values being below 200 K in the inner core.

This study investigates the initial stage (IS) and return stroke (RS) currents of 50 triggered lightning flashes (TLFs) that were conducted in southern China. The IS of the negative TLFs has a longer duration and larger average current, charge transfer, and action integral than those reported elsewhere, with geometric means (GMs) of 347.9 ms, 132.5 A, 45.1 C, and 10.0 × 10³ A² s, respectively. Two positive TLFs containing no RS have much greater average currents, charge transfers, and action integrals in the IS when compared with the negative TLFs. The RS has a greater peak current (17.2 kA; GM, same to below), charge transfer within 1 ms (1.3 C), and action integral within 1 ms (5.8 × 10³ A² s), and shorter 10% to 90% rise time (0.4 μs) than elsewhere. The peak current is prominently correlated with the rate of rise, charge transfer within 1 ms, and action integral within 1 ms. Furthermore, when the total duration of the RS and any following continuing currents is longer than 40 ms, the peak current, charge transfer within 1 ms, and action integral within 1 ms of the RS are seldom greater than 25 kA, 2.6 C, and 15 × 10³ A² s, respectively. It is indicated that TLFs containing RSs tend to have a longer duration but a smaller charge transfer during the IS than those without RS. The peak current of the RS is weakly correlated with its preceding silence period when there was no channel base current.