Over 90 percent of all thunderstorms in this country take place between May and August.
On average, around 2 million lightning bolts are registered in Germany over the course of a year; in extreme weather conditions, the figure can be several hundred thousand a day. However, only about a third of it reaches the ground, the rest discharges between the storm clouds.
Depending on the weather conditions, however, there can be considerable differences in thunderstorm activity from year to year. In calm high-pressure areas with plenty of sunshine and dry air, one can wait a long time for storms, but severe thunderstorms are almost inevitable in the humid air from subtropical regions.
The muggy thunderstorm air does not reach northern Germany that often, which is why only about one lightning bolt per year and square kilometer is registered in the coastal area. In the greater Stuttgart area, as well as in the foothills of the Alps and in the Ore Mountains, more than five lightning bolts were counted. In addition to the humidity, the type of terrain often plays a decisive role, because when the air flows over a mountain, the thunderstorm-prone air is lifted, which can give the decisive impetus for triggering the thunderstorm.
The American naturalist Benjamin Franklin proved back in 1752 that lightning is an electrical discharge. He steered kites into storm clouds to unleash lightning bolts. Today everyone agrees that electrical charges are separated by rising and falling water and ice particles in the thundercloud and this creates an enormous electrical field.
If you are surprised by a thunderstorm outdoors, you should on no account look for beeches or find any linden trees, but avoid all trees, not just willows. Because lightning tends to strike in exposed places. It is best to go into a building or at least into a car that discharges the lightning charge on the outside of the body, but you should then not touch any metal.
If you can’t make it there, you should squat down and put your feet together until the storm is over, because the current that spreads out around a lightning strike in the ground can also be dangerous. The greater the distance between the feet on the ground, the greater the so-called step tension. A number of cows in the pasture have already fallen victim to the large gap between their hooves after a nearby lightning strike. For this reason, it is not advisable to sit on a horse during a thunderstorm.