A Further Study of Lightning Strikes to Helicopters Over the North Sea

This paper reports on the research conducted at the UK Meteorological Office (UKMO) in fulfilment of Phase I of the UKMO development proposal ‘Lightning Strikes to North Sea Helicopters. The research involved the development and evaluation of two types of lightning forecast for use by North Sea helicopter operators. These were the Patton forecast for predicting triggered lightning and the NIMROD forecast for predicting natural lightning.