Increased Thunderstorm Activities Caused by Warming and Wetting Over the Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is one of the world's most climate‐sensitive regions. Thunderstorms represent a major type of precipitation system across the TP and contribute significantly to regional rainfall. This study generated newly a continuous thunderstorm data set clustered by applying the density‐based spatial clustering of application with noise algorithm to lightning data obtained from the World Wide Lightning Location Network from 2010 to 2024. On the basis of this data set, a significant increase in thunderstorm activity was found over the TP in recent two decades, with the maximum rate of increase reaching 2.7 10 −4 km −2 thunderstorms per year in the south‐central TP. At the same time, a weak decreasing trend of the thunderstorm intensity, as evidenced by its lightning production capacity. Investigations suggest that the increase in thunderstorm numbers is mainly driven by increased convective available potential energy due to the increased near‐surface moisture over the TP. A decrease in ice‐phase processes and more warm rainfall across the TP, caused by increased near‐surface moisture in western TP and warming in eastern TP, has resulted in decreased thunderstorm intensity. These findings highlight the importance of considering the impact of severe weather changes on the future global energy reallocation and water cycle.