Severe Weather

Severe Thunderstorms Cold fronts normally are associated with low pressure systems that carry plenty of cold air with them This normally causes the atmosphere to become unstable As instability increases, the strength of the updrafts and downdrafts intensify Supercells are extremely powerful t-storms that form under these conditions

Lightning lightning is electricity caused by the rapid rush of air in a storm cloud lightning bolt heats the surrounding air to about 30,000 degrees Celsius this is about 5 times hotter then the sun thunder is caused by this heated air expanding and contracting

The Fury of Wind violent downdrafts that are concentrated in a local area are called downbursts these can happen in a violent storm these can either be microbursts or macroburts depending on the amount of damage

Hail hail is precipitation in the forms of balls or lumps of ice hail forms because of 2 characteristics supercooled water droplets encounter ice pellets and fall to Earth ice pellets are caught in alternating updrafts and downdrafts Savanah Hailstorm Hail1 ..\Hail.asf

Floods floods are normally caused when the upper level winds moving a storm are weak and an abundance of rain falls over an area over a long period of time the ground cannot absorb the water as fast and this will cause floods to occur

Tornadoes a tornado is a violent, whirling column of air in contact with the ground before there is a tornado, there is a funnel cloud a tornado forms when the spin speed and direction change suddenly with height Tornado Development Tornado2 Andover Tornado

Tornado Distribution most tornadoes form in the late afternoon to early evening they form when 2 air masses of different temp. differences meet http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/monthly/newm.html

Tornado Safety in the US, an average of 80 deaths and 1500 injuries result from tornadoes