Why does thunderstorms happen

In fact, they occur for at least one hour. These highly organized storms feed off an updraft that is tilted and rotation. This updraft can be up to 10 miles in diameter and up to 50, feet tall! You may see the updraft as much as 20 to 60 minutes before a tornado forms.

Supercells are where the most violent tornadoes come from. A strongly bowed echo may indicate high winds in the middle of the line, where the storms are moving forward most quickly. Brief tornadoes are likely to occur on the leading edge of a bow echo. This is a collection of thunderstorms that can spread across an entire state and last more than 12 hours. We use this term to classify any of the following storm types:. Now that you know some basic thunderstorm facts and storm types, it is time we dive into the more meteorological explanations behind thunderstorms.

The most basic thing you need to know about thunderstorms is that they have three main ingredients:. Rising, unstable air.

Lifting mechanism. All thunderstorms go through stages of growth, development, electrification, and dissipation. Thunderstorms often develop early in the day when the sun heats the air near the ground. Then pockets of warmer air rise in the atmosphere. When these pockets of air reach a certain level, cumulus clouds form. As things continue to heat up, the clouds grow higher into the atmosphere until they become anvil-shaped.

When the cloud grows, precipitation forms within the cloud in the form of ice, hail, and rain. As these particles bump into one another they become electrically charged. A small positive charge also forms near the bottom on the storm cloud.

Then lightning forms. Lightning is the spark of electricity in the atmosphere or between the atmosphere and the ground. Air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground. When the differences in charges becomes too great, the air can no longer insulate the charges. Then there is a rapid discharge of electricity we call lightning. What are the effects of a thunderstorm? There are quite a few conditions that typically accompany thunderstorms.

Lightning is the occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud. This violent and sudden electrostatic discharge is accompanied by a bright flash and typically also thunder. There are two types of lightning strikes: in-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes.

Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, on the other hand, do pose a direct threat to people, animals, and equipment outdoors. Lightning is most dangerous right before a thunderstorm arrives and right after it begins to depart.

Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes can and do kill people and animals on the ground. On average, lightning kills about 30 people per year in the United States. It also causes hundreds of injuries. This threat is far more severe in other parts of the world where lightning detection, outdoor alerting, and severe weather alerts from a national weather agency may not be as commonplace.

In India, for example, more than 2, people have died every year since due to lightning strikes. This is due to a large number of outdoor workers, a lot of lightning activity during the monsoon season, and a lack of alerting systems to keep people safe from lightning.

If you do survive a lightning strike, you can suffer a variety of short-term side effects including third-degree burns, Lichtenberg figures, cardiac arrest, ruptured eardrums, and hearing loss. Long-term side effects including vision loss, personality changes, slower reaction times, chronic pain, ringing in your ears, and depression. Lightning can also cause power outages and start fires. Another common thunderstorm weather condition is hail. Hail is a form of precipitation that occurs when updrafts in thunderstorms carry raindrops upward into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere where they freeze into balls of ice.

Hail forms when supercooled water drops collide in clouds. Supercooled water will freeze on contact with ice crystals, frozen raindrops, dust, or some other nuclei.

Thunderstorms that have a strong updraft keep lifting hailstones up to the top of the cloud where they encounter more supercooled water and continue to grow. If winds are strong enough, hail can even fall at an angle. Hail size ranges widely from pea-sized to even grapefruit-sized! The largest hail recovered in the U. Yes, you can use thunder to tell how far away a storm is. Next time you see a storm, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder. Take the number of seconds and divide by 5 and that will tell you how far away the storm is in miles.

For example: If you counted 10 seconds between the lightning and the thunder, the lightning is 2 miles away! What is hail? Hail is created when small water droplets are caught in the updraft of a thunderstorm. These water droplets are lifted higher and higher into the sky until they freeze into ice.

Once they become heavy, they will start to fall. If the smaller hailstones get caught in the updraft again, they will get more water on them and get lifted higher in the sky and get bigger. Once they get lifted again, they freeze and fall. This happens over and over again until the hailstone is too heavy and then falls to the ground. What causes the wind to blow?

As the sun warms the Earth's surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the Earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow. What is a gust front? A gust front is the leading edge of the downdraft from a thunderstorm.

It is usually marked by gusty cool winds, and sometimes blowing dust. You will feel the wind from the gust front before it starts to rain. If the air is sufficiently moist, then the moisture condenses to become a cumulus cloud. Know the Facts The typical thunderstorm is 15 miles in diameter and lasts an average of 30 minutes. Thunderstorms happen in every state and every thunderstorm has lightning. Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area. Look for darkening skies, flashes of lightning, or increasing winds.

The negatively charged cloud base also repels electrons on the ground, creating a positive charge there. The rapid heating and expansion of the surrounding air causes the characteristic rumble of thunder that accompanies the flash of light.

Home Planet Earth How do thunderstorms form? Thunderstorms are most likely in the spring and summer months and during the afternoon and evening hours, but they can occur year-round and at all hours. Along the Gulf Coast and across the southeastern and western states, most thunderstorms occur during the afternoon. Thunderstorms frequently occur in the late afternoon and at night in the Plains states.

What kinds of damage can thunderstorms cause? Many hazardous weather events are associated with thunderstorms. Under the right conditions, rainfall from thunderstorms causes flash flooding, killing more people each year than hurricanes, tornadoes or lightning. Lightning is responsible for many fires around the world each year, and causes fatalities.

Hail up to the size of softballs damages cars and windows, and kills livestock caught out in the open. Strong up to more than mph straight-line winds associated with thunderstorms knock down trees, power lines and mobile homes. Tornadoes with winds up to about mph can destroy all but the best-built man-made structures. Where are severe thunderstorms most common?