Thunderstorms- " Natural Phenomena"

Downdrafts atomic number 18 started by the brush of the falling precipitation and after they once start are self-perpetuating. Temperatures in the downdraft are cooler than those in the updrafts and the subsiding expression spreads out along the ground around the storm receivable to its greater density. This is also the stage in the storm's history when lightning is nearly active.

Lightning occurs when the pent-up friction inside the cloud is released creating electri city. The path of the lightning barb carries peak current constructing 200,000 amperes or more, and the associated temperatures may make grow to millions of degrees (Hildore). One bolt of lightning has the power to light a city of half a million inhabitants for a month. As a consequence of this heating, there is explosive expansion and contraction of the air, producing the gouge pulses that are heard as the crash and rumble of thunder.

Because of the bucket along of impenetrable, the distance in miles to a lightning stroke can be quickly estimated by counting the number of seconds between the sleuth of the lightning flash and the sound of the thunder, and dividing by five (if the flash and sound are simultaneous, it was close) (Schaefer and Day).

The last major stage in the bearing cycle of the thunderstorm begins when the downdraft spreads over the entire cloud. This marks the barren stage because there is no longer moisture macrocosm carrie

Donn, William L. Meteorology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975.

Cloud modification, as opposed to weather modification, is a natural process. In many an(prenominal) instances the modification that occurs does not result in an efficient renewal of the cloud droplets to precipitation, but often leads to conditions that, in human terms, are wasteful or undesirable. Cloud formation requires a au thereforetic amount of solar energy: the sun heats the earth, produces convection, and as the rising, moist air cools, it reaches the saturation level and condenses on cloud muscular contraction nuclei.

Dry thunderstorms occur in arid and semi-arid regions. These are called juiceless thunderstorms as there is not enough precipitation for them to reach the ground. This type of storm is a hazard in the areas in which it occurs as it is often accompanied by cloud-to-ground lightning, which causes forest fires and yields no rain with which to put them out (Hidore).

Considerable distribute has been made in recent years toward improving the prevision of thunderstorms and other severe storms. In 1947 Project Cirrus was organized. This establishment was a combined government and industrial effort to look the possibilities and limitations of weather modifications.

The rainfall from a thunderstorm first covers a very small area then spreads out in all directions. The cold downdrafts can spread outward without carrying moisture with them, as the precipitation falls nearly vertically and is not carried outward by the wind. The average length of time that it rains at a point on the ground is about 25 minutes. The most intensive rainfall occurs shortly after the rain begins, usually within two or three minutes, and then begins to slacken gradually (Hidore).

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