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thunderstorm
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thunderstorm
Discover how rapid updrafts of warm air form cumulonimbus clouds resulting in heavy rains and lightning
Observe the density of lightning flashes in a typical year with its highest rate in South America, Africa, and Australasia
Know about the development of a thunderstorm prediction model that can run on a laptop
clouds
Diagram of a thunderstorm showing a towering cumulonimbus cloud with labeled features including warm updrafts rising, cool downdrafts falling, precipitation at the base, and an anvil-shaped top spreading near the tropopause. Colored arrows indicate the movement of warm and cool air within the storm. A faint scale on the right marks cloud height in kilometers. Thematic world map showing the frequency of thunderstorms by region, with color shading indicating average days per year of thunderstorm occurrence. Highest frequencies-marked in red and orange-are concentrated in central Africa, northern South America, and parts of Southeast Asia, while most other regions experience fewer thunderstorms, shown in lighter greens and yellows. thunderstorm: rain and lightning lightning: cloud-to-ground Diagram showing a hail-producing thunderstorm with arrows illustrating cold downdrafts and warm updrafts, the pathway of hailstones within the cloud, and cross-sections of hailstone growth from a small spherical embryo to a large, layered hailstone.
At a Glance
Lightning over Oradea, Romania
thunderstorm summary
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Facts You Should Know: Weather Quiz
Umbrella colored like a rainbow sticking out above a sea of black umbrellas while it rains. (storm, weather)
Weather Words Vocabulary Quiz
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Thunderstorm cumulonimbus clouds above Montana. weather storm thunderstorm atmospheric disturbance cumulonimbus clouds thunder and lightning Homepage blog 2011, science and technology
Clouds and Cloud Types
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thunderstorm
thunderstorm Thunderstorm with lightning.

thunderstorm

meteorology
Written by
E. Philip Krider
Professor of Atmospheric Physics, University of Arizona.
E. Philip Krider
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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•History

thunderstorm, a violent short-lived weather disturbance that is almost always associated with lightning, thunder, dense clouds, heavy rain or hail, and strong gusty winds. Thunderstorms arise when layers of warm, moist air rise in a large, swift updraft to cooler regions of the atmosphere. There the moisture contained in the updraft condenses to form towering cumulonimbus clouds and, eventually, precipitation. Columns of cooled air then sink earthward, striking the ground with strong downdrafts and horizontal...

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