Explain the formation of a thunderstorm.
The Formation of a Thunderstorm A warm updraft is just the beginning of a thunderstorm, though. Once the air rises into the atmosphere, it begins to cool. Cool air can't hold as much water as warm air, so as the air cools, the water in the air gets kicked out as condensation and may eventually fall back to the ground as rain. In order for this to happen, though, the cumulus cloud has to grow very tall.
Think about it this way: If you're playing a game of Red Rover and try to break through the human wall on the other side by yourself, you may not be very successful because there's only one of you. But if you get all of your friends to crash into that line of people with you, you'll have greater success because you are a large group with a greater force.
The same is true for water in the thunderstorm cloud. By itself, that single water droplet is not heavy enough to fall back to the ground as rain. But if the cloud is tall enough, that one little droplet will pick up other droplets with it and eventually grow into a large enough water droplet to break through and fall back to Earth.
Just like the updraft was warm air rising upward into the atmosphere, a downdraftis cool air sinking back to the ground. Downdrafts are created by the falling water droplets because they don't just drag other water down with them as they fall, they drag cooler air down with them as well. The combined warm updraft and cool downdraft create a storm cell. As the process of warm air rising and cool air sinking continues, the cloud grows vertically into the shape of an anvil, which is called an anvil head cloud. This is now a full-fledged thunderstorm cloud, ready to storm away
A warm updraft is just the beginning of a thunderstorm, though. Once the air rises into the atmosphere, it begins to cool. Cool air can't hold as much water as warm air, so as the air cools, the water in the air gets kicked out as condensation and may eventually fall back to the ground as rain. In order for this to happen, though, the cumulus cloud has to grow very tall.
Think about it this way: If you're playing a game of Red Rover and try to break through the human wall on the other side by yourself, you may not be very successful because there's only one of you. But if you get all of your friends to crash into that line of people with you, you'll have greater success because you are a large group with a greater force.
The same is true for water in the thunderstorm cloud. By itself, that single water droplet is not heavy enough to fall back to the ground as rain. But if the cloud is tall enough, that one little droplet will pick up other droplets with it and eventually grow into a large enough water droplet to break through and fall back to Earth.
Just like the updraft was warm air rising upward into the atmosphere, a downdraftis cool air sinking back to the ground. Downdrafts are created by the falling water droplets because they don't just drag other water down with them as they fall, they drag cooler air down with them as well. The combined warm updraft and cool downdraft create a storm cell. As the process of warm air rising and cool air sinking continues, the cloud grows vertically into the shape of an anvil, which is called an anvil head cloud. This is now a full-fledged thunderstorm cloud, ready to storm away
