Thunderstorms

Review
REMEMBER!
Low Pressure Systems bring bad
weather
All fronts cause precipitation, but a
cold front can produce severe
weather like thunderstorms and
tornadoes
 Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms occur in warm, moist
air masses and along fronts
Warm air is forced up, it then cools,
then cumulonimbus clouds form.
Sometimes, water vapor may
condense into ice crystals causing
hail
The cool, dense air sinks and causes
strong updrafts which causes strong
winds
 Damage from
Thunderstorms
When streams can no longer hold all
the water running into them from
rainfall, flash floods may occur with
little warning
Thunderstorms also bring high winds
of over 89km/h sometimes.
Hail can cause dents in cars, break
windows and flatten crops.
 Lightning
Inside a storm cloud, warm air is lifted rapidly as
cooler air is sinking.
This causes the cloud to have opposite charges.
When an electrical current runs between areas
with opposite charges, lightning flashes
Lightning can reach temperatures of 30,000
degrees Celsius. Thats 5 times hotter than the
surface of the sun!!
Lightning can occur within a cloud, between
clouds or between a cloud and the ground.
 Thunder
Thunder comes from the rapid
heating of air around a bolt of
lightning.
The heat from the lightning bolt
heats up the air quickly and then
cools it down quickly.
The rapid movement of molecules
creates sound waves.