Talk:Thunderstorm

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Thunderclouds also have a wide distribution of occurrences. These forms of clouds are able to form under the circumstance where warm, moist air collides with cool air fronts. Thunderclouds undergoes two stages of development: Cumulus and Mature. During the stage of Cumulus, the heat generated from the Sun's radiation warms up the Earth's crust and the air close towards it. The warming of the air cause an updraft to form, allowing the warmed air to rise as warm air is less dense than normal oxygen. If the updraft contains water molecules, the rising of the updraft would cause the water molecules to condense forming a Cumulus cloud(there is less heat presented in higher attitudes). The continuation of condensation of the water molecules would allow the Cumulus cloud to reach greater volume. This ends the Cumulus stage. The next stage of mature starts off by the expansion of the Cumulus cloud. As the Cumulus cloud continues to reach larger size, the water molecules composed within the cloud becomes too heavy for the Cumulus to hold. The water molecules then fall downwards as water is denser than air in the atmosphere. While this phenomenon undergoes, the cool air(or downdraft) enter the now-less dense Cumulus cloud. This process is known as entrainment. Downdrafts, being heavier than updrafts causes the Cumulus cloud to descend. While descending, the downdraft forces down water molecules that form the precipitation of the thunderstorm. Once this process is complete, the Cumulus cloud is then transformed into a Cumulonimbus cloud. The Cumulonimbus cloud is the basic foundation of a thundercloud.

This information was removed from the severe weather page, but may be of use to your article. Respectfully Bullock ✉ 18:56, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

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