Heavy air pollution suppresses summer thunderstorms in central China

► Aerosol's negative radiative forcing stabilized the lowest troposphere. ► The stabilization caused reduction in the lowland winds and increase in the mountain top wind speeds. ► The decreased instability caused a decrease in the frequency of the thunderstorm normalized by rainfall amount in the lowland. ► This relative reduction of thunderstorm is absent at the mountaintop due to the much thinner aerosol layer.