<![CDATA[Alerts for forecast lightning/CAPE]]>I initially posted this on here 5 years ago and was advised that it would be considered, but didn't hear any more about it. I know not all ideas can be implemented, but I think it would be great if we had such a feature considering thunderstorms are an important weather hazard. So I'll post it again on here in the hope that it gets more traction:

*" It would be great if we could set up an alert for when forecast lightning flash density or CAPE exceeds a certain value for one of our alert locations.

I imagine it wouldn’t take too much time to add this capability since it would just be using the same technique as the existing alerts we already use for other parameters such as wind speed, temperature, etc…. except it would just sample the gridpoint value of forecast lightning flash density or CAPE.

Even better would be if such an alert could be triggered when a combination of both lightning (or CAPE) and 500hpa wind speeds (a proxy for shear) exceeds a certain threshold. This could provide a useful heads up on the potential for severe thunderstorms. "*

]]>https://community.windy.com/topic/44258/alerts-for-forecast-lightning-capeRSS for NodeTue, 16 Jun 2026 21:32:27 GMTTue, 28 Apr 2026 05:16:17 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Alerts for forecast lightning/CAPE on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:16:22 GMT]]>@Gkikas-LGPZ said in Alerts for forecast lightning/CAPE:

I think convective rain, lightning and/or thunderstorms layer
Is a better indicator.
CAPE, by itself, is not a good indicator
as I describe here
https://community.windy.com/post/26433

@gkikas-lgpz yeah I know (I'm a meteorologist by trade) but while convective rainfall often works well for standard "wet" thunderstorms, it's not as good for dry high-based storms that occur in arid to semi-arid interior areas, especially in the country I live in.

Even ECMWF lightning flash density has a consistent tendency to somewhat underestimate dry inland storms in my country but overall, its skill is good.

In any case, I only mentioned CAPE as a potential alternative if lightning flash density is somehow impractical to implement for alerts (but I still prefer lightning flash density as the parameter to be used for alerts).

]]>https://community.windy.com/post/227256https://community.windy.com/post/227256Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:16:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Alerts for forecast lightning/CAPE on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:04:58 GMT]]>I think convective rain, lightning and/or thunderstorms layer
Is a better indicator.
CAPE, by itself, is not a good indicator
as I describe here
https://community.windy.com/post/26433

]]>https://community.windy.com/post/227254https://community.windy.com/post/227254Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:04:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Alerts for forecast lightning/CAPE on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:44:19 GMT]]>@Ken Hello, I noted your request and when new alerts will be planned, we can consider adding this. However, right now, there is no plan to handle this.

]]>https://community.windy.com/post/227252https://community.windy.com/post/227252Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:44:19 GMT