Local meteorologists will be able to better monitor lightning and thunderstorm activity when an advanced alarm system goes into operation next month.

Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong and Wuhan are among the first cities to install the system, which will eventually become a nationwide alarm network.

"The employment of such a system will greatly enhance our capacity to monitor lightning and better safeguard our city against natural disasters,'' said Wang Jianchu, director of Shanghai Centre of Lightning Protection.

The alarm system, called SAFIR3000, is a lightning positioning device purchased from Finland. It will provide 24-hour monitoring of lightning over the entire city and neighbouring sea area, including the under-construction Yangshan Port.

In carefully-selected locales -- Nanhui District, Chongming Island in Shanghai and Haiyan in Zhejiang Province -- five 12-metre antennas have been installed to measure the intensity of thunder.

Utilizing real-time data, experts with Shanghai Central Meteorological Station and the lightning protection centre will be able to track the position and force of strikes and predict future strikes and positions up to one hour in advance.

Citizens will be alerted in time to leave or avoid areas of potential danger.

Shanghai is a place where thunder and lightning often occurs and direct lightning, lightning induction and lightning surge cause major damage, Wang said.

Monitoring of thunder and lightning in Shanghai has previously been solely dependent on scores of observers in 11 stations, but with the concentration of a larger population and increasing economic wealth, the city has become more vulnerable to strikes.

Earlier this week a thunderstorm caused a power outage in Pudong. Last year more than 30 major strikes claimed nine lives in the area, and local insurance companies annually pay out around 300 million yuan (US$36.3 million) for damage caused by lightning.

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