Thunderstorms how does it form

For air to rise rapidly, it must become buoyant compared to the surrounding air. When the atmosphere is unstable, air near the ground can become buoyant and rise rapidly through the atmosphere. In general, the warmer the air is near the earth's surface and the colder the air is aloft, the more unstable the atmosphere is. In addition to temperature, moisture near the ground can also contribute to the instability of the atmosphere.

The third ingredient needed for thunderstorm development is something that will trigger motion in the atmosphere.

This may be some sort of boundary such as a front, heating caused by the sun, or cooling aloft. Once a thunderstorm has developed, it will continue to generate boundaries that can trigger additional storms.

In a big thunderstorm cloud, there are now strong upward winds and downward winds happening at the same time. These are called updrafts and downdrafts. This is the most dangerous stage of the storm, when tornadoes, hail, winds and flooding can happen.

Updrafts continue to fuel the storm with warm, moist air. But, once a storm runs out of updrafts, it starts to weaken. GOES satellites watch out for lightning, too. The warm, moist air immediately above the ground is less dense than the cooler, dryer air above, causing it to rise. As it lifts, the water vapour it contains begins to cool and condense into water droplets. This causes a cloud to form and also releases heat, giving the air a boost as it continues its ascent, creating a powerful upward current.

Within about 30 minutes or so, a towering thundercloud cumulonimbus builds up, reaching heights of up to 10km. Beyond this altitude, the temperature no longer decreases with height, meaning that the rising mass of air is no longer buoyed upward.