At Meteorage, a subsidiary of Météo-France and a European expert in lightning detection, we analysed this event together with our meteorological expert Joris Royet to better understand the mechanisms behind one of the season’s most significant lightning outbreaks.

On 27 June 2026, our network detected 147,950 lightning flashes across France, the Benelux and western Germany in less than 12 hours.

Over the entire weekend, we recorded nearly 1.9 million lightning flashes and triggered 3,618 thunderstorm alerts for our customers across Western Europe.

Beyond the remarkable electrical activity, the event had consequences across a wide range of sectors:

  • power networks,
  • rail and air transport,
  • public events,
  • outdoor activities,
  • industrial sites and sensitive infrastructure.

For organisations exposed to thunderstorm risk, the challenge is to have a precise understanding of a storm’s movement in order to protect people and sensitive assets while limiting operational disruption.

The key questions are: when should activities be suspended?When is it safe to resume operations while minimising downtime? And how can impacts or damage be documented once the thunderstorm has passed?

Real-time alerts, monitoring tools and impact reports help support these operational decisions and quickly identify affected areas, making inspections, maintenance and the return to service more efficient.

So what atmospheric conditions led to such an exceptional level of electrical activity?

View the press release