Why afternoon thunderstorms

Rising air is needed to produce clouds, and rapidly rising air is needed to produce thunderstorms. For air to rise rapidly, it must become buoyant compared to the surrounding air.

When the atmosphere is unstable, air near the ground can become buoyant and rise rapidly through the atmosphere. In general, the warmer the air is near the earth's surface and the colder the air is aloft, the more unstable the atmosphere is. In addition to temperature, moisture near the ground can also contribute to the instability of the atmosphere.

The lightning is a high-voltage, high-current surge of electrons, and the temperature at the core of a lightning bolt is incredibly hot. For example, when lightning strikes a sand dune, it can instantly melt the sand into glass. The combination of the rapid heating of the air by the lightning and the subsequent rapid cooling creates sound waves.

These sound waves are what we call thunder. There can never be thunder without lightning. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close.

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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? The greatest severe weather threat in the U. But, no place in the United States is completely safe from the threat of severe weather.

A watch can cover parts of a state or several states. Warnings mean there is a serious threat to life and property to those in the path of the storm. Thunderstorms are a weather phenomenon that occur and develop due to high amounts of moisture in the air along with warm air that is rising.

These storms typically last less than thirty minutes and occur within a mile radius. According to NOAA, in the United States nearly , thunderstorms occur each year, with ten percent of these storms becoming severe thunderstorms.

Thunderstorms occur most often in the afternoon and evening of the spring and summer months, and bring with them thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and the potential risk for flash flooding. A thunderstorm forms when warm moist air is unstable and begins rising.

As this warm air rises the water vapor within the air cools and releases heat. Condensation then occurs as the air condenses creating a cloud, that then grows until it forms a towering cumulonimbus cloud.

Ice particles within the cloud holding both positive and negative charges create lightning when leaders extend from these charges within the cloud. These negatively and positively charged particles within the cloud connect through a channel with the opposing charges of electricity rising up from the ground, creating a strong electric discharge.