Strong Storms Develop in Guinee Forestiere, Sierra Leone and Liberia

17 April 2014, 20:00 UTC: Strong evening thunderstorms were being tracked by Guinea meteorologists on Tuesday evening as another hot day lead to thunderstorm development. Temperatures had topped out between 31 and 37 Celsius creating instability leading to the storms. PulseRad simulated radar showed the storms deloping over the highlands of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The Total Lightning Detection Network was also tracking the strongest cells. Lightning rates reached very frequent intensities causing Dangerous thunderstorm alerts to be issued for the worst of the storms.

The Total Lightning Network indicated thousands of strikes had occured with the strong storms over just one hour period.

Lightning rates in the strongest storms exceeded 30 flashes per minute.