A storm safari in subtropical South America: Proyecto RELAMPAGO

RELAMPAGO was a major field campaign conducted in the Cordoba and Mendoza provinces in Argentina and western Rio Grande do Sul State in Brazil in 2018-19 that involved more than 200 scientists and students from the United States, Argentina, and Brazil.

This campaign was motivated by the physical processes and societal impacts of deep convection that frequently initiates in this region, often along the complex terrain of the Sierras de Cordoba and Andes, and often grows rapidly upscale into dangerous storms that impact society. Observed storms during the experiment produced copious hail, intense flash flooding, extreme lightning flash rates, and other unusual lightning phenomena, but few tornadoes.