Highest thunderstorm tops
Dear Tom,
You are always telling us how high the thunderstorm tops are. What is the
highest top ever recorded in the Chicago area and in the world?
Bill Matthews, Schaumburg
Dear Bill,
As a general rule of thumb, the higher the thunderstorm top the more severe
the thunderstorm is likely to be. Storms with the highest tops tend to form
in areas of greatest lift where the atmosphere is most volatile. In the
Chicago area, garden-variety summer thunderstorms develop to heights between
35,000-45,000 feet, but the tops of severe thunderstorms here can approach
60,000 feet and in extreme cases 70,000 feet. The top of the thunderstorm
that produced the Plainfield tornado on Aug. 28, 1990, towered to 65,000
feet. The tallest thunderstorms on Earth have been documented in the tropics
where tops have been measured to about 75,000 feet, building more than 14
miles up into the atmosphere.