March 1, 2005

  • Thunderstorms?


    How can it be a chilly 48œ outside at 10:00 p.m. yet there are heavy thunderstorms around with impressive lightning displays?


    Just yesterday Dmitry took his science test which included the development of thunderstorms....to wit, warm, moist air rises swiftly and meets the cold air aloft, then hits its dew point and begins to condense, etc.


    48œ is warm enough to trigger thunderstorms?  Since when?

Comments (6)

  • I dunno, but we had them too.  It's been chilly all day today and right around 8:00 or so the thunderstorm started.  It's still sprinkling even now. 

    Of course, it could be that the 48 degrees was warm compared to the cold air above.  I'm not sure we had any hail this time though.  We did last Monday because it had been so very warm and then it cooled off really fast and rained and hailed for an hour or so, and then it rained off and on the whole rest of the week.  Yesterday was the first fine day since then, but then this morning it was cold and dreary again and more rain.  I should be glad for the rain, living in the desert, and really I am.  It's just all these poor plants are waiting to be put into their beds and they're having to sit on my carport so forlorn, and I feel sorry for them.

  • Oh yeah - you can have thunderstorms at that temp. And even colder. While it's not exactly common, it's not unheard of for us to have a "thundersnow." Snow squall like blazes, unsettled upper atmosphere, and the occasional boom.

  • Right. "Warm" in this context means "well above freezing" and "warmer than what it's bumping up against." It doesn't have to mean "balmy and pleasant."

    I know this only because we just learned about the development of thunderstorms a couple of weeks ago, too. Had it been six months from now, I probably wouldn't remember it anymore.

  • Thundersnow!  Is that what it's called or did you make that up?  We had that one time during the winter we were living in upstate NY.  It was such a cozy sound.

  • BION, I'm pretty sure I've heard it before.  Not this past snow, in December...maybe the Valentine's Day snow of '04? 

  • We not only have had thunderstorms in colder weather, we've even had tornadoes in November around here.

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