Thunderstorm life cycle

Arabia Weather - The life cycle of a thunderstorm

Stages of formation and growth of thunderstorms:

Thunderstorms may last half an hour to an hour usually, and in the tropics it may last up to two hours. These thunderstorms go through three stages during their formation:

1. growth stage.
2. stage of maturity.
3. fading phase.

Growth stage - the first stage in the life cycle of a thunderstorm:

The growth phase begins when the air rises as a result of one of the following factors:

1. terrain, especially mountains.
2. fronts.
3. Earth's surface hotter.

When the wet ascending current reaches a certain point, condensation occurs, and as a result of the heat generated by the condensation process, energy is produced that causes the cumulus cloud to grow vertically.

The height of the clouds may reach about 20,000 feet, or about 6 km, and because of the intensity of the upward current, which has a speed of 3,000 feet/minute, water droplets or ice crystals do not fall to the ground, but rather rise and fall back inside the cloud, and so the process may be repeated up and down, and the size of a drop increases. Water or ice crystal (hail) in each cycle of rise and fall. On average, this stage lasts for 10 minutes, and lightning may occur in it sometimes, and during this stage little precipitation occurs.

Maturity stage - the second stage in the thunderstorm life cycle:

The upward current prevents water droplets and ice crystals (hail) from descending and raises them to the top of the cloud, then descends again and raises them again, bearing in mind that the size of the water droplets (hail) increases with each cycle of ascent and descent, and in this case their size increases to the point where the current cannot The ascender carries it, and thus the drops begin to fall to the ground, and as a result of the downward movement of the drops, the surrounding air moves downward, and the speed of the downward current may reach 2500 feet/minute.

1. A sharp drop in temperature.
2. A rise in atmospheric pressure.
3. Strong surface winds of variable direction.

At this stage, the height of the clouds may reach between 40,000-60,000 feet, and this is the most dangerous stage in terms of the large size of the hail, the intensity of the winds, the lightning, and the floods that may occur.

The duration of this phase is 10-20 minutes or longer in some storms.

Vanishing Phase - The third stage in the life cycle of a thunderstorm:

The intensity of the rains decreases at this stage, and the downstream currents are dominant, which lead to cutting off the supply of wet currents.

At this stage, the ascending air currents become marginal compared to the descending air currents. This stage is considered the beginning of cloud weakness, knowing that some thunderstorms cause strong air currents on the surface at this stage.

Source : Weather Disasters book by Dr. Jamal Al-Mousa