Wildfire smoke continues to result in poor air quality from the Upper Midwest into the Northeast. Multiple days of hot, dry and windy conditions are expected to bring fire weather concerns for portions of the Four Corners region into the central Great Basin and Rockies. Heavy rainfall and a flash flooding threat continues in the Southeast. Severe thunderstorms continue across the Northern Plains Read More >
Fig. 1. A “shelf cloud,” representing the leading edge of air spreading horizontally away from a thunderstorm downdraft. Wind gusts of 60 mph or more would likely be experienced along the leading edge and just to the rear of this cloud formation.
Fig. 2. Schematic of a mature thunderstorm, depicting the updraft (yellow arrows pointing toward top of the page) and the downdraft
A thunderstorm may eventually grow to a height of 50,000 feet or more before it stops developing. Generally speaking, the “taller” the storm, the more likely it is to produce violent weather.
Thunderstorms are characterized in two ways: general and severe. A Severe thunderstorm is one that produces large hail (i.e., one-inch diameter or larger), damaging wind gusts, and/or tornadoes.