"Ron McKinnon" wrote in message
newscD8e.1052899$8l.772250@pd7tw1no...

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
nk.net...

TCU have, as you would expect, characteristics between CU and CB clouds.
All three can be thought as different stages of the same think, a cloud
pruduced by convection. Obviously three seconds before a TCU starts
producing lightning and becomes a CB, it is going to a lot like a
thunderstorm inside.

A minor point: A TCU will not 'produce lightning to become a CB'. If
it produces lightning it *is* a CB, and has been for some time, but it is
not the production of lightning that makes it a CB.


That is what I said ( I think) A thunderstorm becomes a thunderstorm when
the thunder starts. Three seconds before the first lightning, it is still a
TCU.

It is not necessary that a CB produce lightning, nor hail, nor heavy
precipitation, nor Mammae, Funnel Clouds, Tornados or Waterspouts.
It can do none of these things and still be a CB. But if any of these
things happen it is necessarily a CB.

I am not sure what you are saying here, If it doesn't produce lightning it
isn't a thunderstorm (CB) so I would say that it is nessesary for a CB to
produce lightning.

Conversely, when a TCU is only slightly taller than a CU, it is going to
be more like a CU inside. There is a relationship between the vertical
height of a convective cloud and turbulence but it is not absolute. I
have never heard of large hail coming from anything other than a big CB.

If it hails, it's a CB, by definition. A TCU can produce snow
pellets, however (and ice pellets, I think (it's been a while)),


This is the first time that I have heard that hail defines a thunderstorm.
A thunderstorm is defined by lightning (and therefore thunder). Hail is
produced by updrafts in a cloud through the freezing level allowing frozen
precipitation to remain aloft and grow. I don't see why this couldn't
happen without lightning. I was hailed upon yesterday and there was no
thunder.

Mike
MU-2