Thunderstorms, also known as electric storms or thunderstorms, are storms characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the earth's atmosphere, known as lightning. Relatively weak thunderstorms are sometimes called thunderstorms. Thunderstorms occur in the form of clouds known as cumulus clouds, usually accompanied by strong winds and often causing heavy rain and sometimes snow, sleet or hail, but some thunderstorms produce little or no rain. Thunderstorms can line up or turn it into rain, known as a storm. Strong or strong thunderstorms include some of the most dangerous weather phenomena, including hail, strong winds and tornadoes. Some of the most persistent thunderstorms, known as supercells, circulate like tornadoes. While most thunderstorms move with an average wind flow through the troposphere they occupy, vertical wind shear sometimes causes their path to deviate at right angles to the direction of the wind shear.

Thunderstorms are caused by rapid upward movement of warm, humid air, sometimes along the front. However, some sort of cloud effect is needed, whether it is a trough forward or a short wave, or some other system for the air to accelerate rapidly upwards. As warm, humid air moves upward, it cools, condenses, and forms a cumulative cloud that can reach a height of more than 20 kilometers (12 miles). When the rising air reaches the dew point temperature, the water vapor condenses into water or ice droplets, reducing the pressure locally in the thunderstorm cell. All precipitation falls at long distances through the clouds to the earth's surface. When the drops fall, they collide with other drops and become larger. The falling drops create a descent that draws cold air with it, and this cold air spreads over the earth's surface, sometimes causing strong winds that are usually associated with thunderstorms.