Frontal rainfall occurs when the warm and the cold air meet each other.
Frontal Rainfall
- This type of rainfall occurs when the warm and the cold air meet each other. Because the warm air is lighter, it rises above the cold air. The rising air is then cooled beyond the saturation point resulting in heavy rainfall.
- Such rainfall lasts only for few hours. It is very heavy during tropical cyclones.
Thunderstorms are associated with heavy rainfall and lightning
- Lightning is caused when raindrops move up and down because of convectional air currents.
- Because the temperature above the clouds is extremely low, small ice particles are formed.
- When these ice particles move against each other, they become electrically charged. While positively charged ions (which are lighter) settle at the top of the cloud, the negatively charged ions settle at the bottom of the clouds.
- When positively and negatively charged ions are attracted towards each other, a flash of lightning takes place.
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