Each day about 8.6 million lightning bolts discharge around the earth courtesy of thunderstorms. It would take much more space than this article alone to give you an in depth explanation of these powerful cloud systems, but here is an overview. They can reach up to 10 miles high in the atmosphere, and are loaded with potential energy. The updrafts and downdrafts of thunderstorms can reach speeds of 60 to 100 m.p.h., and many forms of precipitation can be found in these clouds, such as large raindrops, snowflakes, snow pellets, and hailstones. Thunderstorms cause much of the bad weather on this planet that can injure or kill you.
Hurricanes are actually a combination of many thunderstorms rotating around a central core system.
Tornadoes come from severe thunderstorms, along with hailstones that can reach baseball or even softball size. Flooding rains, damaging winds, and of course, dangerous lightning all come from these large clouds. Read more about severe thunderstorms and vertical clouds . TMJ4 is not responsible for the content of external sites links through our site.