Weather Phenomena and Storms

Type of thunderstorm in which air rises because of unequal heating of Earth's surface within a single air mass and is most common during the afternoon and evening.

A thunderstorm that is produced by advancing cold fronts and, more rarely, warm fronts.

Local air-mass thunderstorms that occur because land and water store and release thermal energy differently.

A localized area of strong winds in a downdraft beneath a severe thunderstorm.

Scale used to rate a tornado's intensity.

Extremely powerful, self-sustaining thunderstorm characterized by intense, rotating updrafts.

A sudden spark, or energy discharge, caused when electrical charges jump between parts of a cloud, between nearby clouds, or between a cloud and the ground.

A mobile, destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud and advancing beneath a large storm system.

A severe storm that develops over tropical oceans and whose strong winds of more than 120 km/h spiral in toward the intensely low-pressure storm center.

Center of a hurricane where air is calm.