Question

How does a thunderstorm occur?

Answer 1

Study about how thunder originates. Thunderstorm is a special type of storm which is mainly known due to the thunder effect of it. A thunder or lightning is an electrical discharge which contains a huge amount of charge with it and originates due to friction of ice and dust particles in the clouds.

Complete answer:
We know that, the thunderstorm is a type of brutal but comes for a short span of time, weather disturbance which is for maximum numbers is related with lightning, thunder, dense clouds, heavy rain or hail, and strong gusty winds. Thunderstorms arise when layers or surfaces of hot and moist air rise in a heavy, smooth upward stream to colder regions of the atmosphere.

There the moisture in the air contained in the stream condenses to create cumulonimbus clouds and with it eventually, precipitation. The huge volume of cooled air then sinks downward towards the earth, while hitting the earth with huge downdrafts and horizontal winds. At the same time of the winds, electrical charges get produced on cloud particles (water droplets and ice) due to the friction of the particle.

Lightning discharge is observed when the electric charge on the cloud becomes sufficiently large it gets attracted towards the ground or earth. Lightning hits the air when it passes through so tremendously and quickly that shock waves get generated; these shock waves due to the strumming of air molecules are heard as claps and rolls of thunder.

One strike of thunder may contain from thousands to several thousands (10000 V to 100000 V) of volts due to heavy discharge of charges. Which can easily burn through any living organism on the ground. On occasion, many of the thunderstorms are accompanied by swirling whirlwinds of air which become concentrated and powerful enough to form a new type of storm that we call tornadoes which is a rotating thunderstorm.

Note: The term thunderstorm is made of two terms: thunder and the storm. Thunder is another name of the term lightning, which only originates due to huge charge discharge from the clouds to the ground. One should remember the meaning of the term thunderstorm to answer the question easily. Also, note that due to the energy exchange between the air molecules and the charge we see the illumination effect due to the generation of photon particles from the air molecules not due to the thunder itself.