How does a storm occur and what severe weather warnings are there?

How does a storm occur and when is a storm warning issued? You will find an answer to these questions here.

• Thunderstorms, hail, heavy rain - all of this is part of a storm .
• Different types of weather are known as a storm.
• Meteorologists know different levels of severe weather warnings .

Munich - whether in spring, summer, autumn or winter. Storms occur in every season. But how does such a storm arise? What is this all about and when is a storm warning given ?

A storm can turn out differently. Sometimes there is lightning and thunder . Sometimes there is heavy precipitation in the form of hail, heavy rain or snowfall. A storm occurs as soon as a very hot and humid air mass meets cold, significantly cooler air.

Severe weather: This is how these weather phenomena arise

The energy released in the process initially causes strong wind , which rises. It is this upswing that drives the warmer and humid hot air up into the colder atmosphere, where this air condenses.

Such processes are usually very clearly visible from Earth. You can see in the sky when the clouds are piling up. It is not for nothing that there is a saying about the weather: "Something is brewing there!".

A large storm cloud can contain between 20 and 100 million tons of water, according to wetter.com . Hurricane gusts prevail in this storm cloud , which push water drops upwards where the temperatures are below freezing and the drops freeze. The strong wind drives the frozen water drops up until they are too heavy and fall to the ground as hail.

Severe weather: when does one speak of a super cell?

The falling ice lumps create strong fall winds, which then turn into strong gusts on the ground and can sometimes cause devastating damage. By the way, one speaks of a “ super cell ” when several storm clouds join together to form a giant storm cloud. Then the highest danger level prevails.

Due to so-called heavy winds, these super cells or the smaller individual thunderstorms can become a tornado. This phenomenon is rather rare in Germany.

Severe weather warning: When is the warning started?

If a dangerous situation is discovered in the weather models, the first information and warnings are given so that you can adapt to them at an early stage. There is so-called official advance information from the German Weather Service. These are issued a maximum of 48 hours (for federal states) or 12 hours (for regional warnings) before the expected event.

Weather warnings are often given so that you are prepared for possible eventualities. It often happens that a weather warning is given and in the end there is no thunderstorm or severe weather . However, this is still better than if there is no warning and there is a devastating cloudburst .

Sunny weather on the Baltic Sea, cloudy with snow showers, however, on the edge of the Alps. / V pic.twitter.com/qf7DzHIUxT

Especially in summer , storms develop so quickly that only regions in the wind direction can be warned. In winter , there are usually severe weather warnings due to frost and fog because the traffic infrastructure is affected.

Severe weather warning: There are a total of four warning levels

When a warning is issued, there is no need to panic at first. If you are warned of wind or thunderstorms, you may want to secure furniture and windows. Precautions against flooding should be taken in the event of heavy rain warnings . In the event of extreme weather warnings , it is advisable to simply stay at home.

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List of rubric lists: © dpa / Nicolas Armer