Thunderstorms and Lightning

Thunderstorms and Lightning
What are thunderstorms?

• a storm that generates lightning and thunder
• produces gusty winds, heavy rain, and hail.
• It may be produced by
• a single cumulonimbus cloud and influence only a small area, or
• clusters of cumulonimbus clouds covering a large area.
• forms when warm, humid air rises in an unstable environment.
• Various mechanisms can trigger the upward air movement needed to create
thunderstorm-producing cumulonimbus clouds.
• One mechanism, the unequal heating of Earth’s surface, significantly contributes
to the formation of air-mass thunderstorms
Air-Mass Thunderstorms
• These air masses are:
• warm, humid
• contain abundant moisture in their lower levels and
• can be rendered unstable when heated from below or lifted along a front.
• Air-mass thunderstorms are more frequent during spring-summer season:

• Because, mid-tropospheric air  becomes unstable
• As it is warmed from below by the heated land surface.
• Has a strong preference for mid-afternoon, when surface temperatures are highest.
• they generally occur as scattered, isolated cells instead of being organized in relatively
narrow bands or other configurations.
• Because local differences in surface heating aid the growth of air-mass thunderstorms,
Stages of Development
• Important field experiments that were conducted in Florida and Ohio in the late 1940s
• probed the dynamics of air-mass thunderstorms.
• This pioneering work, known as the Thunderstorm Project,
• was prompted by a number of thunderstorm-related airplane crashes.
• It involved the use of radar, aircraft, radiosondes, and an extensive network of surface
instruments.
Weather Balloons and Radiosonde
• A weather or sounding balloon is a
balloon which carries weather
instruments aloft to send back
information by means of a small,
expendable measuring device called a
radiosonde.
Battery powered
Modern radiosondes measure or

calculate:
• Altitude
• Pressure
• Temperature
• Relative humidity
• Wind (speed and direction)
• Geographical positions (lat/long
– GPS)
Radiosondes measuring ozone

concentration are known as
ozonesondes
• The research produced a three-stage model of the life cycle of an air-mass
thunderstorm.
• The three stages are:

• Cumulus
• Mature
• Dissipating
• an air-mass thunderstorm is largely a product of the Cumulus Stage
uneven heating of the surface rising currents of air 
cumulonimbus cloud.
• At first the buoyant thermals produce fair-weather
cumulus clouds that may exist for just minutes before
evaporating into the drier surrounding air.
• This initial cumulus development is important because
it moves water vapor from the surface to greater
heights.
• Ultimately, the air becomes sufficiently humid that
newly forming clouds do not evaporate but instead
continue to grow vertically.
• The development of a cumulonimbus tower requires a
continuous supply of moist air.
• The release of latent heat allows each new surge of
warm air to rise higher than the last, adding to the
height of the cloud.
Cumulus Stage
• This stage is dominated by updrafts.
• Once the cloud passes beyond the freezing level,

precipitation occurs.
• Eventually, the accumulation of precipitation in the

cloud is too great for the updrafts to support.
• The falling precipitation causes drag on the air and
Mature Stage
initiates a downdraft.
• The creation of the downdraft is further aided by the

influx of cool, dry air surrounding the cloud, a
process termed entrainment.
• This process intensifies the downdraft because the

air added during entrainment is cool and therefore
heavy; possibly of greater importance, it is dry.
• It thus causes some of the falling precipitation to

evaporate (a cooling process), thereby cooling the air
within the downdraft.
• As the downdraft leaves the base of the cloud, precipitation
is released. Mature Stage
• This marks the beginning of the cloud’s mature stage.
• At the surface the cool downdrafts spread laterally and can

be felt before the actual precipitation reaches the ground.
• The sharp, cool gusts at the surface are indicative of the

downdrafts aloft.
• During the mature stage, updrafts exist side by side with

downdrafts
• They continue to enlarge the cloud.

• When the cloud grows to the top of the unstable region,
often located at the base of the stratosphere, the updrafts Mature Stage
spread laterally and produce the characteristic anvil top.
• The mature stage is the most active period of a
thunderstorm.
• Gusty winds, lightning, heavy precipitation, and sometimes
small hail are common.
Dissipating Stage
• Once downdrafts begin, the vacating air and
precipitation encourage more entrainment of the
cool, dry air surrounding the cell.
• Eventually, the downdrafts dominate throughout the
cloud and initiate the dissipating stage.
• The cooling effect of falling precipitation and the
influx of colder air aloft mark the end of the
thunderstorm activity.
• Without a supply of moisture from updrafts, the
cloud will soon evaporate.
• An interesting fact is that only a modest of the
moisture (20 %) that condenses in an air-mass
thunderstorm actually leaves the cloud as
precipitation.
• The remaining 80 % evaporates back into the
atmosphere.
Dissipating Stage
• It should be noted that within a single air-mass
thunderstorm there may be several individual cells—
that is, zones of adjacent updrafts and downdrafts.
• When you view a thunderstorm, you may notice that
the cumulonimbus cloud consists of several towers.
• Each tower may represent an individual cell that is in a
somewhat different part of its life cycle.
A developing
cumulonimbus cloud
• To summarize, the stages in the development of an air mass thunderstorm are as
follows:
• 1. The cumulus stage, in which updrafts dominate throughout the cloud and
growth from a cumulus to a cumulonimbus cloud occurs.
• 2. The mature stage, the most intense phase, with heavy rain and possibly small
hail, in which downdrafts are found side by side with updrafts.
• 3. The dissipating stage, dominated by downdrafts and entrainment, causing

evaporation of the structure.
How does lightning form?
• an electric current.
• To make this electric current, first there must be a cloud.
• When the ground is hot, it heats the air above it.
• This warm air rises. As the air rises, water vapour cools
and forms a cloud.
• When air continues to rise, the cloud gets bigger and
bigger.
• In the tops of the clouds, temperature is below freezing
and the water vapour turns into ice.
• Now, the cloud becomes a thundercloud.
• Lots of small bits of ice bump into each other as they move
around.
• All these collisions cause a build up of electrical charge.
• Eventually, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges.
• Lighter, positively charged particles form at the top of the
cloud (carried upwards due to turbulence).
• Heavier, negatively charged particles sink to the bottom of
the cloud.
• When the positive and negative charges grow large enough,
a giant spark - lightning - occurs between the two charges
within the cloud.
• Most lightning happens inside a cloud, but sometimes it happens between the cloud and the
ground.
• Positive charge builds up on the ground beneath the cloud  it gets attracted to the negative
charge in the bottom of the cloud.
• The ground's positive charge concentrates around anything that sticks up - trees, lightning
conductors, even people!
• The positive charge from the ground connects with the negative charge from the clouds and a
spark of lightning strikes.
• Thunder:
• The electrical discharge of lightning superheats the air immediately around the lightning
channel.
• In less than a second the temperature rises by as much as 33,000 0C.
• When air is heated this quickly, it expands explosively and produces the sound waves we
hear as thunder.
• Lightning seen instantaneously, sound comes a little later. Sound waves travel at a rate of 330
metres per second.
• Summary

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Thunderstorms and Lightning

What are thunderstorms?

• Air-mass thunderstorms are more frequent during spring-summer season:

• probed the dynamics of air-mass thunderstorms.

• This pioneering work, known as the Thunderstorm Project,

• was prompted by a number of thunderstorm-related airplane crashes.

Modern radiosondes measure or

Radiosondes measuring ozone

• The three stages are:

• Once the cloud passes beyond the freezing level,

• Eventually, the accumulation of precipitation in the

• The creation of the downdraft is further aided by the

• This process intensifies the downdraft because the

• It thus causes some of the falling precipitation to

• At the surface the cool downdrafts spread laterally and can

• The sharp, cool gusts at the surface are indicative of the

• During the mature stage, updrafts exist side by side with

• They continue to enlarge the cloud.

• 3. The dissipating stage, dominated by downdrafts and entrainment, causing

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