Flash floods are a serious problem in the Mediterranean region in particular, and in Europe in general. Floods result from large weather systems with embedded severe thunderstorms that deposit large amounts of rainfall in short periods of time.

Since lightning activity can be detected and monitored continuously from thousands of kilometers away, we have set the goal of using lightning data to better nowcast (3-hour prediction) and forecast (24-48 hour prediction) the location, intensity and timing of heavy convective precipitation events.