The thunderstorms we’ve seen are from daytime heating
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – Why is it still so warm even though we’ve seen some storms the past few days? Most storms in our area form from fronts, but the past few days they’ve been fueled by daytime heating.
When it gets really hot out and there’s a lot of humidity, you can create clouds really fast. The heat from the ground warming up creates instability which means that there will be lift to create clouds. If there’s enough lift, then you can create convection in the sky which will fuel thunderstorms.
The convection will bring the humid air up, but then as the air cools, it fall back down. As it moves up and down, the moisture gets heavier and heavier and will eventually fall down as rain. The more updraft there is, the more rain will build up before falling. If it builds tall enough, you can get cumulonimbus clouds which can produce lightning and even some hail.
A Heat Advisory is extended for the Twin Tiers
Usually daytime heating will only cause isolated thunderstorms. You only see widespread storms from fronts. A front will bring in either warmer or cooler air to an area and will force air up creating clouds and then showers or even storms once the clouds mature.
Usually the more violent weather occurs from a cold front, but you can still get storms from warm fronts.
Summer starts today with showers, storms, and continued high heat
Daytime heating storms won’t cause us getting cooler weather afterwards because there is nothing actually changing as the storms move through. But a cold front will bring in cooler weather because cooler air is moved into the region causing the storms.
That’s why there hasn’t been a cold breeze move in from these storms the past few days, but you will during a front. So still be careful out there, because the heat will persist into the end of the week!
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