Cumulonimbus Cloud

weather · storms · water cycle · powerful

Towering sky giant. A cumulonimbus cloud can stretch more than 40,000 feet into the sky, making it taller than commercial airplanes fly. These massive clouds form when warm, moist air rushes upward in powerful currents.

Ice crystals collide. High up in the cloud where it's super cold, water vapor turns into ice crystals, snow, and graupel (small pellets of ice). When these ice bits bump and rub together, they create the electrical charges that make lightning.

Lightning factory. The movement and collision of ice crystals inside a cumulonimbus cloud causes electrical charges to build up until they release as lightning, which is why thunderstorms are so electrifying.

Hail maker. The powerful upward and downward air currents inside a cumulonimbus can toss ice particles up and down repeatedly, layering ice on them until they become chunks of hail that fall to the ground.

Extreme rainfall. Cumulonimbus clouds release torrential rain and can cause floods because they contain enormous amounts of water vapor all condensing at once.