How High Can Thunderstorms Grow? Higher Than You Might Think

Ever Wonder How Big Thunderstorms Can Grow?

Thunderstorms can come in all shapes and sizes. From thunderstorms embedded in hurricanes, to independent thunderstorms that can grow into giant supercells. They can become extremely powerful and unleash one of nature's more dangerous phenomena - tornadoes.

No matter the capacity in which a thunderstorm forms, one thing is certain: they grow to heights that might blow your mind. They are capable of growing higher than an airplane flies and taller than Mt. Everest.

Let’s start from the bottom. The base of a thunderstorm can form as low as 2,000 feet. For reference, that’s about twice the height of Freedom Tower in New York City. As the storm matures, the clouds grow taller. On average, thunderstorm clouds range in height between 40,000 and 60,000 feet. Typically thunderstorm clouds don’t grow higher than the tropopause, which is at 60,000 feet near the equator. That’s about 20,000 feet higher than the cruising altitude of airplanes and about twice the height of Mt. Everest.

However, there have been some exceptions. In May of 2016, a thunderstorm on the Texas/Mexico border was believed to grow as high as nearly 70,000 feet! The highest cloud tops from this particular storm reached into the lower levels of the stratosphere. This particular storm created very large hail as it crossed into Texas from Mexico.

If a storm has a lot of instability and lift, especially in the tropics, they can develop something called overshooting tops. These cloud tops are dome-like protrusions that extend above the thunderstorm top and can tower as high as 75,000 feet.

To constitute a thunderstorm, there has to be a rain-bearing cloud with lightning. For the storm to be labeled “severe” it has to contain one or more of the following:

• Hail greater than one inch in diameter
• Winds gusting at least 57.5 mph
• Producing a tornado

Thunderstorms by the numbers, according to NOAA:

• 16 million - The number of thunderstorms worldwide each year.
• 2,000 - The number of thunderstorms occurring around the world at any given moment.
• 100,000 - The number of thunderstorms each year in the U.S. Roughly 10% of these reach severe levels.

Always make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecast, and know what to do if you are ever in the crosshairs of a thunderstorm. Here are some safety tips to keep handy in case you are ever threatened by a severe thunderstorm.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.