A new tool to avoid lightning tragedies like in Praia Grande in December 2014

Abstract

In 29 December 2014 four people were killed by lightning in Praia Grande beach, state of São Paulo, in the Southeast region of Brazil. This was the second largest number of fatalities due to a single lightning in the Brazilian history. In less than 30 minutes, 16 cloud-to-ground flashes occur in a distance less than 5 km from the location of the fatality, detected by the Brazilian Lightning Detection Network (BrasilDAT), in association with a thunderstorm related to a cold front. The article describes a new computational tool to predict the occurrence of this kind of thunderstorm, giving a forecast with great anticipation and large precision that can be used to provide prior alert for the population.