Twenty Miles?

The 20-mile clearance policy is a safe number and probably easy to stipulate, but scale and definitions make it challenging. For every fully visible and developed severe thunderstorm, there are even more smaller cells or building storms that may or may not grow to thunderstorm level. Sometimes a curtain of rain is just a curtain of rain. Other times, it can be hiding something much bigger due to the lurking cumulonimbus that has built up above the overcast.

Mike Hart

Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Thunderstorms are incredibly powerful and frequent global phenomena, capable of releasing energy comparable to a nuclear bomb.
While the FAA recommends staying 20 miles clear of thunderstorms, precisely defining "what" constitutes a storm for this rule is complex and requires experienced judgment due to varying stages of development and hidden hazards.
Pilots face several specific and dangerous thunderstorm hazards, including gust fronts, virga-induced downdrafts, microbursts, and outflow winds, which can cause sudden, severe wind shear or descent.
Safe navigation around thunderstorms relies heavily on experience, continuous weather monitoring, and a cautious approach, as getting too close can lead to predictable and severe consequences.

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Time-lapse thunderstorm videos recorded by the International Space Station always remind me of science fiction movies, slightly unbelievable. The truth is both stranger and more violent than you may realize.

Our planet experiences constant thunderstorms, weather phenomena when solar heat stored in warm, moist air is converted into kinetic and electromagnetic energy, including X-ray and gamma-ray flashes. According to NOAA estimates, there are about 16 million thunderstorms worldwide each year, and roughly 2000 at any given moment.