Thunderstorms Possible Wednesday In Puget Sound: NWS

SEATTLE, WA - The National Weather Service is warning of possible thunderstorms late Wednesday. If the storms happen, it will be before 11 p.m., according to the NWS.

The chance of thunderstorms is greatest east of Puget Sound and in the mountain lowlands - in other words, most of the Seattle metro area. Thunderstorms happen when warm air rises into the upper atmosphere. Geographic features like mountains and hills help that process.

According to the NWS:

As a storm rises into freezing air, different types of ice particles can be created from freezing liquid drops. The ice particles can grow by condensing vapor (like frost) and by collecting smaller liquid drops that haven't frozen yet (a state called "supercooled"). When two ice particles collide, they usually bounce off each other, but one particle can rip off a little bit of ice from the other one and grab some electric charge. Lots of these collisions build up big regions of electric charges to cause a bolt of lightning, which creates the sound waves we hear as thunder.

The NWS is reminding all Puget Sound residents that if you hear thunder, that means there's lightning - all thunderstorms have lightning.

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