Discover how energy, moisture, and moving air create powerful weather.
Explore storms, including thunderstorms, lightning, hail, tornadoes, tropical cyclones, and storm safety.
Thunderstorms need moisture, unstable air, and a lifting force.
Learn MoreCollisions among ice particles separate electrical charge inside a storm.
Learn MoreHail grows when strong updrafts carry ice repeatedly through supercooled water droplets.
Learn MoreTornadoes are rotating columns of air extending from thunderstorms to the ground.
Learn MoreHurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are the same type of storm in different ocean regions.
Learn MoreForecasts and alerts provide time to act.
Learn MoreThunderstorms need moisture, unstable air, and a lifting force. Rising warm air builds a cumulonimbus cloud, where condensation releases heat and strengthens the updraft.
Collisions among ice particles separate electrical charge inside a storm. A lightning discharge rapidly heats the air, creating the expanding shock wave we hear as thunder.
Hail grows when strong updrafts carry ice repeatedly through supercooled water droplets. Stones fall when they become too heavy for the rising air to support.
Tornadoes are rotating columns of air extending from thunderstorms to the ground. Wind shear can create horizontal rotation that a strong updraft tilts vertically and tightens.
Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are the same type of storm in different ocean regions. They draw energy from warm water and weaken over land or colder seas.
Forecasts and alerts provide time to act. During lightning, move indoors; during tornado warnings, shelter in a small interior room on the lowest level; during floods, avoid moving water.