weather term
Thunderstorm
A storm producing lightning and thunder, usually formed by rapidly rising warm, moist air building into a towering cumulonimbus cloud.
Thunderstorms need warm, humid air near the ground and a mechanism to force it upward quickly, whether that's daytime heating, a cold front, or air rising over higher ground. As the rising air cools, ice crystals and water droplets collide inside the cloud and build up an electrical charge, which eventually discharges as lightning, with thunder created by the shockwave of rapidly expanding, superheated air along the lightning's path.