What is a tornado? How are thunderstorms formed?

The tornado formed by very strong convection in the air, can be accompanied by lightning or tornadoes, hail, with wind gusts of 92km / h or more.

According to NSSL, the thunderstorm research office belongs to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it is a phenomenon of heavy rain with lightning, caused by very strong convection in the atmosphere.

Thunderstorm is a phenomenon of heavy rain with lightning, caused by very strong convection in the atmosphere.

Convection forms when the ground heats up due to the absorption of a lot of solar radiation, causing the hot and humid air to rise high, intersecting the air stream with lower temperature spilling downwards.

A thunderstorm undergoes three stages of initiation, maturity and decline. At the inception phase, convection creates cumulonimbus clouds, which look like pylons rolled upwards, may not rain and come with lightning. At the maturity stage, cumulonimbus continued to grow, appearing pylon pushing air down, the rain began to fall. Hail, showers, thunderstorms, strong winds and tornadoes can occur. Finally, in the decline phase, the steam in the cloud clusters fades, the rain is lighter, but there may still be lightning.

Stages of thunderstorms formation.(Graphic: NSSL).

A "thunderstorm" is when it occurs with hail, or a gust of 92km / h or a tornado. Worldwide, an estimated 16 million thunderstorms are estimated each year. There are always about 2,000 thunderstorms forming.