A convective storm accompanied by lightning and thunder and a variety of weather conditions, especially heavy rain or hail, high winds, and sudden temperature changes. Thunderstorms originate when intense heating causes a parcel of moist air to rise, leading to instability and the development of cumulonimbus cloud – a towering cloud with a characteristic anvil-shaped top. The exact mechanisms of thunderstorms are not fully understood. They occur most frequently in the tropics but are also common in the mid-latitudes.
Thunderstorm. Cross section through a thunderstorm cell.
A storm of fairly local scale in which strongly developed cumulonimbus cloud produces thunder and lightning, usually with rain and strong, gusting wind, and often with hail.
A storm including strokes of lightning, which cause the thunder, and draw off electrons earthward as part of the atmospheric electrical cycle.
- last in first out
- last-in, first-out
- last mile
- last quarter
- La Superba
- LATA
- latch
- latching
- latch-up
- Late-Devensian Interstadial
- late-glacial
- late heavy bombardment
- latency
- latent class model
- latent heat
- latent heat of transition
- latent learning
- latent period
- latent root
- latent variable
- latent vector
- latent virus
- lateral
- lateral accretion
- lateral accretion deposit