Life Cycle of a Thunderstorm
Life Cycle of a Thunderstorm A basic thunderstorm (single cell) goes through three phases during its lifetime: cumulus, mature, and dissipating. This can last between 30 minutes to an hour. Why do I care? If you see a thunderstorm coming, knowing what stage it is in could help you determine how much impact it will have on the area around you. I should already be familiar with : Fronts, How Clouds Form, Precipitation Types The three main ingredients for a thunderstorm to grow and develop are instability, moisture, and a lifting mechanism all explained in previous topics. The information below will further explain the development of thunderstorms when all of these ingredients are available. Figure A. The cumulus stage of a growing thunderstorm. The life of a typical non-severe thunderstorm goes through three stages: Cumulus, Mature, and Dissipating. In the first stage (cumulus), we see the cloud that will become the thunderstorm starting to form...