Thunderstorms - Alaina

Hey! Grammi & Pop! I miss you so much! You will not believe the storm that is supposed to hit us. We were looking at the radar and we are supposed to get hit with a huge thunderstorm. I know you probably aren't familiar with them, living out there in Kansas, but they are actually pretty dangerous. You have had tornadoes, right? Well these storms can get winds up to 57 miles, just like the tornado. The only other things are that all the thunderstorms have lightening. Just like the lightening that comes down and burns the fields. We don't get fires like that really because all our thunderstorms come packed with tons of rain. Sometimes it rains so hard we get flash flooding. Which is when we get a lot of water that starts to go down hill really fast, So we get about 1-2 inches of water on the ground sometimes even more.
The storms as big and frightening as they are don't need a lot to actually form all they need are:

• Moisture


• Unstable air (which is just air that could go up and down quickly)


• Lifts (which are breezes that lift the air in order to form the actual storm)

That's only three things, not that much so they could happen pretty often in the summer and the spring. Thunderstorms can happen anytime but they mostly occurring the afternoon.The good thing is that they only last for about 30 minutes and are only about 15 miles in diameter. It's not that bad normally, I just hope this one isn't one of the storms that is very very severe. I'm just waiting it out, It might be one of those storms and I am a little nervous if it ends up that way. I think we will be OK. I can't wait to hear from you guys! Talk to you later, Alaina