What is a thunderstorm?

Thunderstorms often occur at the turn of spring and summer or in hot summer. When the clouds in the atmosphere are unstable, strong convection is easy to occur, and when the potential difference between clouds and between clouds and the ground reaches a certain level, it will discharge. Sometimes thunder rumbles and dazzling lightning flashes across the sky, often accompanied by strong winds, showers or hail. Thunderstorms are always associated with strong cumulonimbus clouds. In the weather forecast, people often say that strong convective weather such as thunderstorms and strong winds refers to thunderstorms accompanied by strong winds or hail.

Because the occurrence and development of thunderstorms are linked with cumulonimbus clouds, from the appearance to the disappearance of thunderstorm clouds, it is very local and sudden, with a horizontal range of only a few kilometers or even more, and only two or three hours. Therefore, this mesoscale weather system is difficult to forecast. Strong thunderstorm is a kind of disastrous weather. Lightning will cause lightning fire danger, and strong winds will blow down houses and uproot crops such as trees, fruits and vegetables. After being hit by hail, they will suffer serious losses or even no harvest. Sometimes local heavy rain will also cause geological disasters such as mountain torrents and mudslides. The duration of thunderstorms is generally short, and the life of a single thunderstorm is generally less than two hours. There are more thunderstorms in the south than in the north, and there are more thunderstorms in the mountains than in the plains. Thunderstorms often occur in summer and autumn afternoons. At night, due to the radiation cooling of the cloud top, the temperature stratification in the cloud becomes unstable, and it can also cause thunderstorms, which are called night thunderstorms.

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