Thunderstorm clouds aka cumulonimbus from the air

When I was flying across the U.S. on United a few weeks back I had the opportunity to see not one, but two cumulonimbus (thunder storm) clouds from the air. I am certain that we were at a safe distance from both of these cloud formations, flying at an altitude of 36,000 ft.

What happened was either the captain or the first-officer made an announcement that they were asking us to stay seated with our seat belts fastened as we passed between two areas of thunderstorms. It is hard to tell distance in the air, at least it is for this novice. But I am certain that we were at a safe distance of at least 25 km from each area of thunderstorms. They were quite impressive and a little scary as we could not see the tops of either cumulonimbus. In a matter of minutes we were clear of the worst of the cumulonimbus, and there was little if any turbulence. Or at least little turbulence that I felt. None the less, I was glad to be clear of them.

As many of you know, cumulus clouds often, but not always develop into much more dangerous cumulonimbus clouds.

The National Weather Service's JetStream - Online School for Weather has an excellent lesson on thunderstorms where those of you who are so inclined can go and learn more about thunderstorms. For some great photos of cumulonimbus, there are some nice photos on the S'COOL On-Line cloud chart of cumulonimbus clouds.

Finally, I thought you might enjoy a video called Day of the Cumulonimbus. You will have to follow the link to watch the video as the person who posted the video to youtube did not enable embedding. The video is about five minutes long and I think that you will enjoy it.