What makes thunderstorm

Do not use electric equipment like computers and appliances during a storm. Stay away from windows and doors and stay off porches. Call or send for help immediately. The injured person does not carry an electrical charge, so it is okay to touch them.

Thunderstorms What is a thunderstorm? A thunderstorm is a storm with lightning and thunder. Its produced by a cumulonimbus cloud, usually producing gusty winds, heavy rain and sometimes hail. What causes a thunderstorm?

The basic ingredients used to make a thunderstorm are moisture, unstable air and lift. You need moisture to form clouds and rain. You need unstable air that is relatively warm and can rise rapidly. Finally, you need lift.

This can form from fronts, sea breezes or mountains. When are thunderstorms most likely to occur? Thunderstorms can occur year-round and at all hours. But they are most likely to happen in the spring and summer months and during the afternoon and evening hours. How many thunderstorms are there every day? It is estimated that there are around 1, thunderstorms that occur across our planet every day.

Are thunderstorms dangerous? Yes, despite their small size, all thunderstorms are dangerous. Every thunderstorm produces lightning, which kills more people each year than tornadoes. What is lightning? Lightning is a bright flash of electricity produced by a thunderstorm. All thunderstorms produce lightning and are very dangerous. If you hear the sound of thunder, then you are in danger from lightning. Lightning kills and injures more people each year than hurricanes or tornadoes; between 75 to people.

What causes lightning? Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice frozen raindrops bump into each other as they move around in the air.

All of those collisions create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The positive charges or protons form at the top of the cloud and the negative charges or electrons form at the bottom of the cloud. Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The grounds electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, or single trees.

The charge coming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and - zap - lightning strikes! Have you ever rubbed your feet across carpet and then touched a metal door handle?

If so, then you know that you can get shocked! This lift usually comes from differences in air density. Warmer, less dense air rises upward, creating lift. As the air lifts higher and higher, it causes a storm cloud to grow taller and taller.

Thunderstorm clouds can rise up to 10 miles into the air! In a big thunderstorm cloud, there are now strong upward winds and downward winds happening at the same time. These are called updrafts and downdrafts.

Thunderstorms form when warm, moist air rises into cold air. The warm air becomes cooler, which causes moisture, called water vapor, to form small water droplets - a process called condensation. The cooled air drops lower in the atmosphere, warms and rises again. This circuit of rising and falling air is called a convection cell. If this happens a small amount, a cloud will form. If this happens with large amounts of air and moisture, a thunderstorm can form.

Thunderstorms can consist of just one convection cell, multiple convection cells, or even one extremely large and powerful convection cell.