Quickly developing and fast propagating thunder-storms are an important source of high impact weather (sudden occurence of high precipitation rates and high wind speed) in central Europe. The region to the north of the Alps is particularly prone to such natural threats implying that early warnings are highly demanded for enabling timely risk prevention measures. Possibilities how to combine data from routine observations taken by geostationary satellites, a ground based radar network and lighting detection systems with high resolution forecast data for routine nowcasting purposes are exemplified for a typical summer situation of August 2004. The gradual development of the different technologies is sketched and a vision of how to combine the various data and forecasting sources in an integrated system is presented.
1. Introductio