Have you ever watch a hopeful electric storm barrel toward you , only to see it settle aside or shift course at the last second ? It can be thwarting to expect the cool reliever of a nice soaker — only to be left high and wry as you watch the dark clouds evanesce away on the visible horizon .
It ’s uncouth to describe this phenomenon as a “ house of cards , ” a perceived forcefield hovering over your town that seems to deflect storms when you want them the most . There ’s evenan XKCD comicabout it . Of course , those mythological deflectors do n’t exist , but why do storms seem to systematically hit certain domain , while often skipping nearby towns ?
Some local features , like large , cool bodies of weewee or tall mountains , really can affect how thunderstorm behave . But for the most part , a storm suddenly miss one locating is mostly the outcome of how these bubbling masses of air and wet evolve throughout their short lifecycle .
There are three common types of electric storm — individual - cell , multicell ( think squall lines ) , and supercells . The latter two category are commonly associated with organised knockout atmospheric condition irruption . By far the most common type of thunderstorm around the globe is a single - cell . This is a small , localize volley of convection often call up a pop - up , popcorn , or garden - variety thunderstorm .
If there is n’t a centering period for electrical storm to develop — something like a cold front or a sea breeze — the exact emplacement where one of these tender weather torrents rise is usually passably random . A storm willpop up , produce lots of lightning and heavy rainfall for a petty while , and then start to scatter . The frigid air rushing away from the decaying storm will help as a focus for more thunderstorms to develop nearby . Whether or not you get hit by an approaching thunderstorm depends on how tidy it is , and if any other storm form in its viewing . In other words , if a storm falls asunder a block away from you , it ’s usually a fortuity of atmospheric luck .
If you average out precipitation trendsover a long period of sentence , the data point show that rainfall is passably equally distribute between neighboring communities . One storm could miss you and gain the town next door , while the storm that hits you missed your neighbour down the street . It balance out with clip .
However , there are some cases where sure town do good from their surroundings when a thunderstorm is on its room . Thunderstorms can set about to weaken as they approach more unchanging air travel near cool body of body of water like the Atlantic Ocean or the Great Lakes . There is also some Sojourner Truth that sight are less conducive to storms , as the rough terrain and cooler temperatures can disrupt the updraft and temporarily weaken storms as they cross the terrain . That sure enough is n’t always the suit , though — there are plenty of rocking storms along the coast and in the mountains every time of year .
So for the most part , if a thunderstorm looks like it ’s coming directly for you and then disappears into slender air , it has less to do with where you live and more to do with the tenuous , fluent structure of these glorious rude formations .
