At the same time on Earth are about one and a half thousandstorms, the average rate is estimated as 46 bits per secondlightning. Rain on the planet’s surface is unevenly distributed.Thunderstorms observed over the ocean is about ten times lower than over the continents.The necessary conditions for the emergence of a thunderstorm cloud is the presence of conditions for the development of convection or other mechanism for creating updrafts, moisture reserves, sufficient for the formation of precipitation, and the presence of a structure in which part of the cloud particles in a liquid state, and some - in the ice.All the storm clouds, regardless of type, consistently through stagescumulus cloud, the stage of a mature thunderstorm cloud and the stage of decay.At one time, thunderstorms were classified according to where they occurred- for example, local, frontal or orographic. Currently, more than to classifystorms according to the characteristics of the storms, and these characteristics are mainly dependent on the meteorological environment in which the developing storm.

The main prerequisite for the formation of storm clouds is the condition ofinstability of the atmosphere, forming updrafts. Depending on the size and power of such flows, storm clouds are formed of different types.