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High-energy solar winds are responsible for increasing lightning-generating thunderstorms on Earth, according to a new study. 

Researchers said the new study can help predict the severity of the hazardous weather events weeks in advance. 

According to the study, substantial and significant increase in lightning rates across Europe for up to 40 days was found after the arrival of high-speed solar winds, which can travel at more than a million miles per hour into the Earth's atmosphere, the Financial Express reported.

Researchers are not sure about the mechanism but they said it could be the electrical properties of the air that gets altered as the incoming charged particles from the solar wind collide with the atmosphere. 

Further researchers noted that the rate of lightning strikes peaked between 12 and 18 days after the arrival of the solar wind.

As these streams can be tracked by spacecraft, this offers the potential for predicting the severity of hazardous weather events many weeks in advance, researchers said, according to Financial Express.

"Our main result is that we have found evidence that high-speed solar wind streams can increase lightning rates. This may be an actual increase in lightning or an increase in the magnitude of lightning, lifting it above the detection threshold of measurement instruments," lead author of the study, Chris Scott, said, in the press release.

"Cosmic rays, tiny particles from across the Universe accelerated to close to the speed of light by exploding stars, have been thought to play a part in thundery weather down on Earth, but our work provides new evidence that similar, if lower energy, particles created by our own Sun also affect lightning."

"As the Sun rotates every 27 days these high-speed streams of particles wash past our planet with predictable regularity. Such information could prove useful when producing long-range weather forecasts," Scott said.

Lightning strikes kill around 24,000 people globally each year.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.