Thunderstorm & lightning tracker | News

June 27 2026, 12:00–23:00 Heatwave-breaking thunderstorms across northern France, the Benelux and western Germany

Nearly 150,000 lightning flashes as cooler air moved into an overheated northwestern Europe

⚡ 147,950 flashes detected
⚡ 21,137 cloud-to-ground flashes

For several days, a cut-off low, an isolated pool of cold air aloft, had been lingering off the coast of Portugal, acting like a heat pump by drawing scorching air northward across Western Europe. This system was resposible for sustaining the heatwave.
On 27 June, the cut-off low finally moved northward, merging with the upper-level trough and associated weather systems before progressing eastward. Driven by a dynamic southwesterly flow, the hot air that had accumulated near the surface, made highly unstable by cooler air spreading aloft, was lifted, triggering successive waves of thunderstorms from southwestern France and mountainous regions through northern France, the Benelux and western Germany.
From midday through the evening, thunderstorm activity swept across these regions. The most organized thunderstorm cells locally produced hail, heavy rainfall and strong wind gusts.
In total, nearly 150,000 lightning flashes were detected across the area between midday and the evening of 27 June, including more than 21,000 cloud-to-ground flashes (CG). This level of electrical activity reflected the immense amount of energy that had built up in the atmosphere during the heatwave.
The event did not end there: on 28 June, equally significant thunderstorm activity once again crossed the country from southwest to northeast.

Over the entire weekend, Meteorage's lightning detection network recorded nearly 1.9 million flashes (IC & CG) and triggered 3,618 alerts for customers across Western Europe.
Behind those alerts were thousands of operational decisions:
• protecting people in exposed environments,
• securing vulnerable assets and critical infrastructure,
• suspending activities when necessary and resuming them as quickly and safely as possible,
• prioritising inspections and maintenance operations in areas where lightning activity had been detected.