How can thunderstorms affect people

How does a thunderstorm form? As the air rises, it transfers heat from the surface of the earth to the upper levels of the atmosphere the process of convection. The water vapor it contains begins to cool, releases the heat, condenses and forms a cloud. The cloud eventually grows upward into areas where the temperature is below freezing.

As a storm rises into freezing air, different types of ice particles can be created from freezing liquid drops. The ice particles can grow by condensing vapor like frost and by collecting smaller liquid drops that haven't frozen yet a state called "supercooled". When two ice particles collide, they usually bounce off each other, but one particle can rip off a little bit of ice from the other one and grab some electric charge.

Lots of these collisions build up big regions of electric charges to cause a bolt of lightning, which creates the sound waves we hear as thunder.

The Thunderstorm Life Cycle Thunderstorms have three stages in their life cycle: The developing stage, the mature stage, and the dissipating stage. The developing stage of a thunderstorm is marked by a cumulus cloud that is being pushed upward by a rising column of air updraft. The cumulus cloud soon looks like a tower called towering cumulus as the updraft continues to develop.

There is little to no rain during this stage but occasional lightning. The thunderstorm enters the mature stage when the updraft continues to feed the storm, but precipitation begins to fall out of the storm, creating a downdraft a column of air pushing downward. When the downdraft and rain-cooled air spreads out along the ground it forms a gust front, or a line of gusty winds.

The mature stage is the most likely time for hail, heavy rain, frequent lightning, strong winds, and tornadoes. Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice frozen raindrops bump into each other as they move around in the air. All of those collisions create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The positive charges or protons form at the top of the cloud and the negative charges or electrons form at the bottom of the cloud.

Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The grounds electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, or single trees. The charge coming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and - zap - lightning strikes! Have you ever rubbed your feet across carpet and then touched a metal door handle? If so, then you know that you can get shocked!

Lightning works in the same way. Click Here to see where lightning is currently striking across the U. What causes thunder? Thunder is caused by lightning. When a lightning bolt travels from the cloud to the ground it actually opens up a little hole in the air, called a channel. Once then light is gone the air collapses back in and creates a sound wave that we hear as thunder.

The reason we see lightning before we hear thunder is because light travels faster than sound! How do you know if lightning is nearby? If you see dark clouds, then lightning could be present, but the best thing you can do is to listen for thunder. If you hear thunder, then you need to go indoors or get in a car. Don't be outside, where lightning could strike!

If your hair stands on end or your skin starts to tingle, lightning maybe about to strike. Get down on your hands and knees and keep your head tucked in. Do not lay flat, because it can give lightning a better chance of strike you. How far away can you see lightning and hear thunder? Within those distant thunderstorms, the lightning bolts can be seen as much as miles from us, depending on the height of the bolt, the clarity of the air, and our elevation.

Thunder, in comparison, has a much shorter range of detection - usually less than 15 miles in a quiet rural setting and under 5 miles in a noisy city environment. Can you tell how far away a storm is? Yes, you can use thunder to tell how far away a storm is. Next time you see a storm, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder. Take the number of seconds and divide by 5 and that will tell you how far away the storm is in miles.

For example: If you counted 10 seconds between the lightning and the thunder, the lightning is 2 miles away! What is hail? Hail is created when small water droplets are caught in the updraft of a thunderstorm.

These water droplets are lifted higher and higher into the sky until they freeze into ice. Once they become heavy, they will start to fall. If the smaller hailstones get caught in the updraft again, they will get more water on them and get lifted higher in the sky and get bigger. When a thunderstorm rolls through, it can bring torrential downpours of rain with it.

This rainfall can occur within a very short period of time, causing flash floods. According to NOAA, flash floods kill people annually. A flash flood can cause damage to a structure, tear trees out of the ground and damage bridges. Flood water that is 2 inches deep can sweep away a car or a large truck.

Thunderstorms can produce hail of various sizes that can be devastating to personal property. For example, smaller hail can destroy a farmer's crop in a very short span of time, tearing the plants to pieces.

Larger hail can dent the body of a car, break windows and cause extensive roof damage. A strong enough hailstorm can even kill livestock left in the open. Erin Steeley is a full-time writer and freelancer who uses her background in education, sign language and art to create quality articles.