THUNDERSTORM

DESCRIPTION OF A THUNDERSTORM CREATION OF A THUNDERSTORM TYPES OF THUNDERSTORMS - FRONTAL THUNDERSTORM - OROGRAPHIC THUNDERSTORM - THERMAL THUNDERSTORM - THUNDERSNOW LIGHTNINGS - ORIGIN OF LIGHTNING - TYPES OF LIGHTNINGS T.L.E ("TRANSIENT LUMINOUS ENVENTS") THUNDER CONSEQUENCE OF THUNDERSTORM PRECAUTION OF LIGHTNING DATE AND PLACE IMAGES AND ANIMATIONS METHODS TO PHOTOGRAPH THE LIGHTNINGS SETTING THE CAMERA ACCORDING THE THUNDERSTORM DURING THE DAY DURING THE NIGTH MERGING SEVERAL LIGHTNING PICTURES METHODE TO MERGE SEVERAL LIGHTNING PICTURES PRECAUTION WHEN HUNTING LIGHTNING

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DESCRIPTION OF THUNDERSTORM

Thunderstorms are among the most impressive natural spectacles. These are violent atmospheric disturbances, accompanied by lightning tearing the sky followed by thunderclap amid gust of rain showers see hail.

 

CREATION OF THUNDERSTORM

When the air is unstable in cumulus, an updraft predominates throughout the cell and will form a cumulonimbus. A thunderstorm will occur. These phenomena that are in these clouds 5 to 20 km in height and about 5 km wide. There are updrafts of warm air from over 100 km/h and downdrafts of cold air (convective cell). At the Summit the temperature is very low as the tropopause is lower than 32°F (0°C). There's a big difference of temperature between the top and the bottom of the cumulonimbus. When the cloud has reached the maximum altitude a violent downdraft is formed causing rainfall or hail from the top of the cloud flattened and frozen (incus). The downdraft of cold air eventually crush the updraft of warm air feeding the cloud.

 
A video explaining the development of thunderstorms
part 2/5 : (Floods, Lightning)
Part 3/5 : (Tornadoes)
Part 4/5: (Microbursts and W)
Part 5/5: (On the Drawing Bo)

Updraft and downdraft in cumulonimbus

Click here to see an animation of the formation of a thunderstorm (cumulonimbus)

 

Thunderstorms can be formed : convective cells of 10 km maximum at different stages of their existence called Multicellular thunderstorm or a convective single cell very large (from 20 to 50 km), very intense and very long life named supercell thunderstorm. The latter are formed by cold fronts.

The actual structure of the thunderstorm clouds

TYPES OF THUNDERSTORMS

The supercell thunderstorm is formed especially in the summer and is more violent than the multicellar thunderstorm with strong gust winds, important rainfall or hail and lightnings often occur...

The multicellular thunderstorm is the coexistence of several cumulonimbus following. These thunderstorm can have a shelf life of one day, and can scan an entire region.

Thunderstorms are classified according to their origins :

- FRONTAL THUNDERSTORMS

In this category we have thunderstorms cold front, warm front, occluded front and prefrontal thunderstorms.

• Warm front thunderstorm is created when an warm air mass is unstable ahead towards a mass of cold air and rises as cold air is denser than warm air. Rainfall wall can be 250 to 300 km length, but the width is no more than 50 km.
  
  
• Cold front thunderstorm is often violent and likely to cause the formation of tornadoes. It is formed when a mass of cold air faster than the warm front passes under it. So warm, moist air lighter than cold air, rises creating updrafts and therefore a cumulonimbus.
  
  
• Occluded front thundestorm occurs when a warm air mass ousted by the meeting of two cold air masses that lifts it. During these thunderstorms the base of cumulonimbus is generally at very high altitudes.
  
  
• Prefrontal thunderstorm is more difficult to predict and very violent. Three factors involved in the formation of this thunderstorm : a push of a cold front, unstable air and warming of the soil consecutive of the strong radiation.
  
  
  

- OROGRAPHIC THUNDERSTORMS

• Orographic thunderstorms occur by an unstable flow of warm and moist air raised by a mountain range. Then along the mountain these storms line up and act as the air flow feeds them . They often erupt on the reliefs and remain in the same place. These thunderstorms often occur in the Pyrenees and the Alps in France, mountains near Baja California North – specifically La Bocana to Laguna Hanson, mountains of New Zealand etc.
  
  
  

- THERMAL OR HEAT THUNDERSTORMS

• These thunderstorms are caused by overheating of the soil. It is in the tropics where they are very intense as the heat on the ground reached its maximum ! These thunderstorms can burst at any time of the day or the night also, and on land or at sea, unlike other thunderstorms. It is of course in warm weather these thunderstorms burst. They can repeat itself several days later.