How do storms form?

With the recent couple days of non severe, isolated storms in the area, News Director Doug Raflik used images and video he took, to explain how these storms form.

This is a simple version of what happens in a non severe, isolated rain shower or thunderstorm.

To get an organized, isolated rain shower or thunderstorm to form, you need warm, moist air to rise into cooler air. The larger the difference in temperature from the rising air to the cooler air above, the faster the air will rise, and generally the stronger the storm will be. Rising air that cools will eventually hit the dewpoint temperature and turn to cloud. This rising column of cloud can form as high as 55,000 feet into the sky.

The next step is this towering column of air needs to be tilted, or blown over slightly by stronger winds aloft. This is because as the condensed water vapor (cloud) forms rain drops, this rain needs to fall down stream from the rising air. If it doesn’t fall downstream, and falls straight down, it will “choke out” the air rising up, and the storm will die. As long as it falls away from the updraft, the storm has a chance to stay in a growing phase.

Then the rain falls and this brings cooler air down with it.

On the image above, the red arrow represents the warm rising air. The green is the stronger upper level winds, and the purple is the rain and colder air falling.

Here is a time lapse video of storms in Dane, Columbia and Washington Counties on June 26, 2025.