World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) Monthly Thunder Hour Data

The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) has monitored global lightning since late 2004. Since 2013, the number of global WWLLN sensors has remained largely consistent. This WWLLN Monthly Thunder Hour dataset is calculated from lightning detections from 1 January 2013 onward and is an ongoing dataset. A thunder hour is an hour during which thunder can be heard at a given location. Thunder hours represent a historical measure of lightning occurrence and a metric of thunderstorm frequency that is comparatively less sensitive to geographic variations in the detection capabilities of a lightning location system. Thunder hours are the number of hours in a given month during which at least two WWLLN strokes were observed within 15 km of each grid point. Each file includes the monthly accumulated thunder hours for one year. The data are provided at 0.05° latitude and longitude resolution.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated February 17, 2026, 04:15 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 20:03 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 368f931a-db3c-4633-aee6-33e3b084de31
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/WWLLN/DATA101
landingPage https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-11-00213.1
modified 2026-02-16
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/MSFC/GHRC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 7f5915abb9d63fc9a8f605e7584a874cf02f414368e5d9538761b8e45daf34ed
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial [[{"NorthBoundingCoordinate":90,"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":-90,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180}],"CARTESIAN"]
temporal 2013-01-01/2013-01-01
theme {"Earth Science"}