Sometimes the weather can be extremely violent. One of the most severe types of weather is a hurricane, which may happen near tropical oceans.

Another violent form of weather is a thunderstorm. Thunderstorms happen in extremely moist air, where the grey-black thundercloud stretches up several thousand metres. Inside a thundercloud there are fast air currents which cause ‘static electricity’, electric charge, to build up inside the cloud. Lightning and thunder occur when this electric charge leaps from cloud to cloud or to the ground. The fast air currents inside thunderclouds can hold up large raindrops and so produce very heavy rain.

 

 

 

Thunderstorms can cause bolts of lightning to jump from a cloud to the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

Inside a hurricane

In the centre of a hurricane, called the ‘eye’, there is very little wind. Around the eye, there are very strong winds spiralling round and upwards. Further out there are swirling regions of cloud, reaching perhaps 50 km across. These clouds produce torrential rain.