Life Cycle
The trigger for the lift of the initial cumulus cloud can be insolation heating the ground producing thermals, areas where two winds converge forcing air upwards, or where winds blow over terrain of increasing elevation. The moisture rapidly cools into liquid drops of water due to the cooler temperatures at high altitude, which appears as cumulus clouds. As the water vapor condenses into liquid, latent heat is released which warms the air, causing it to become less dense than the surrounding dry air. The air tends to rise in an updraft through the process of convection (hence the term convective precipitation). This creates a low-pressure zone beneath the forming thunderstorm, otherwise known as a cumulonimbus cloud. In a typical thunderstorm, approximately 5×108 kg of water vapor are lifted into the Earth's atmosphere. As they form in areas of minimal vertical wind shear, the thunderstorm's rainfall creates a moist and relatively cool outflow boundary with undercuts the storm's low level inflow, and quickly causes dissipation. Waterspouts, small hail, and strong wind gusts can occur in association with these thunderstorms.
Read more about this topic: Air-mass Thunderstorm
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or cycle:
“O life as futile, then, as frail!
O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
What hope of answer, or redress?
Behind the veil, behind the veil.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“The lifelong process of caregiving, is the ultimate link between caregivers of all ages. You and I are not just in a phase we will outgrow. This is life—birth, death, and everything in between.... The care continuum is the cycle of life turning full circle in each of our lives. And what we learn when we spoon-feed our babies will echo in our ears as we feed our parents. The point is not to be done. The point is to be ready to do again.”
—Paula C. Lowe (20th century)