What do thunderstorms look like?

Question

please be serious

Answer 1

Thunderstorms are formed in areas of lower pressure, where warm air is allowed to rise into surrounding cooler air, and this is called convection.You will notice towering clouds that appear to be "bubbling" or boiling on a day with a good chance of thunderstorm development. An updraft of circulating air forms. These clouds are called towering cumulus, or cumulus congestus.
If conditions allow, these clouds will continue to become larger and taller, as air continues to rise.The cloud will become taller and taller, until it reaches a stable point in the atmosphere where air can no longer rise, and it spreads out and condenses, forming a flat, anvil shape. This is called the anvil, and the cloud is now known as a cumulonimbus cloud, commonly known as a thundercloud or thunderhead.
Water droplets either become too heavy to be carried upward in the circulating air and falls as rain, or in the case of a stronger updraft, is carried aloft. In this case, the droplet is carried higher and freezes, falls and partially melts, is carried upward and refreezes, until it also becomes too heavy and falls as hail.
Since sunlight is filtered through a towering mass of cloud, the bases of these clouds will appear dark, and sometimes will have a greenish or orangish tint. This is sunlight filtered through water droplets and hailstones suspended in the cloud, and can indicate a more intense thunderstorm with hail. As the storm advances, a wind shift can be noticed and the air may begin to cool. These are outflow winds from the thunderstorm. At this time you will see lightning, and begin to hear thunder, if the storm is close enough for it to be heard. Soon, as the storm passes over your area, rain will begin to fall, and it could be windy.

Answer 2

thunderstorms are caused by columns of hot rising air, where the molecules of water vapour cool as they rise. so a thunderstorm would resemble a very tall cloud but not very wide compared to its height. To give a dimension to this, many very intense thunderstorms we have in the Midwest are 55000 feet tall (not quite 11miles tall) and would be a few miles wide only. The formation of the cloud also looks like it's bubbling or boiling if you look at it for a long period of time as the cloud grows more and more.

As the thunderstorm develops you have lightening and thunder (can't have one without the other) and usually heavy rains. if you are able to see the top of the storm as it dissipates it develops what is called an anvil (looks like an anvil). Where the top of the clouds start to stretch as the energy which created it is either removed or has reduced in strength and the top is pulled along with the strong winds it encounters at high altitudes

Answer 3

As for the clouds, the are big black billowing clouds. If you have ever seen them, you know what I am talking about. You can see them coming for miles. Then you have the lightening, either the bolt lightening or the kind that just flashes up in the clouds. Sometimes they produce hail too. If you have never seen a thunderstorm, watch the movie "Twister", it has a pretty real depiction of what the storms look like.

Answer 4

You should know when a thunder storm is coming. The sky is a very dark gray when a thunder storm comes around, and you see lots of lighting in the sky. Rain is heavy and sometimes refreshing when you stand out there and get soaked. I love doing that cause its so awesome. I hope I helped a little.

Answer 5

These PDFs are kinda big, but they should help.

Basic Spotters' Field Guide
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/basicspot.pdf

Advanced Spotters' Field Guide
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/oax/skywarn/adv_spotters.pdf

Answer 6

How's this for yer

http://www.weatherstock.com/stormcat3.html

Answer 7

sccaary lol