Owner's manual

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Lightning as an Indicator of Storm
Behavior
The following description of a thunderstorm’s intensity
relates to a thunderstorm’s development of an updraft in a
single storm cell. In each of these cases one can think of
them as a continuum of storm cell severity.
1. When the updraft of a cumulus cloud pushes beyond
an altitude where the temperature is at –20 C
electrification of the cloud starts, with negative charge
between the –10 C and –20 C isotherms and the
positive charge above that. When the charge
becomes large enough IC lightning will start to occur.
As the updraft gains strength the charges build to