Hail can produce serious structural damage to an aircraft in a few seconds, especially if the hail is three-fourths of an inch or greater. Icing is another significant hazard of flying through thunderstorms. It is generally in the severe to extreme stages in the mid level of the thunderstorm where the temperatures are between 0 and -20 degrees Celsius. Due to the extreme nature of icing, an aircraft can lose its lift rapidly. Finally, lightning can be a deadly hazard to the aircraft flying through a thunderstorm.
Lightning can do considerable damage to an aircraft.
It can destroy radio equipment and cause onboard fires. In a thunderstorm, one may encounter a great many variations in severe to extreme flight operational hazards that can be deadly. Predicting where they will be and when will they occur is very important. Predicting thunderstorm threat is complicated Predicting thunderstorm activity is complicated and has many variables. First, the meteorologist must determine how thunderstorms could develop.