How many thunderstorms are there in a year

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.

Once they get lifted again, they freeze and fall. This happens over and over again until the hailstone is too heavy and then falls to the ground. What causes the wind to blow? As the sun warms the Earth's surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the Earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder.

Warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow. What is a gust front? A gust front is the leading edge of the downdraft from a thunderstorm. It is usually marked by gusty cool winds, and sometimes blowing dust.

You will feel the wind from the gust front before it starts to rain. If the air is sufficiently moist, then the moisture condenses to become a cumulus cloud. Subject to change as loss estimates are further developed.

As of February 23, A tornado that crosses state lines is counted as a single event in this chart. View Archived Graphs The following chart shows the top 10 catastrophes involving tornadoes.

It counts severe convective storms that may include tornadoes and other perils such as straight-line winds derechos and hail. The August 10, , Midwest Derecho, which is included in the chart as part of the August , outbreak, would rank as the fourth-costliest insured severe convective storm event on record for the U. Includes events that occurred through Consumer Price Index. View Archived Tables The costliest U. View Archived Tables U. Tornado Count, Source: U. View Archived Graphs Back to top.

Tornadoes A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm and comes into contact with the ground, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA. As the collisions and freezing continue to occur, and the charges at the top and bottom of the cloud increase, the electric field becomes more and more intense -- so intense, in fact, that the electrons at the Earth's surface are repelled deeper into the Earth by the negative charge at the lower portion of the cloud.

This repulsion of electrons causes the Earth's surface to acquire a strong positive charge. All that is needed now is a conductive path so the negative cloud bottom can conduct its electricity to the positive Earth surface. The strong electric field creates this path through the air, resulting in lightning. The lightning is a high-voltage, high-current surge of electrons, and the temperature at the core of a lightning bolt is incredibly hot.

For example, when lightning strikes a sand dune, it can instantly melt the sand into glass. The combination of the rapid heating of the air by the lightning and the subsequent rapid cooling creates sound waves.

These sound waves are what we call thunder. There can never be thunder without lightning. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar.