It just doesn't seem possible, or right, or fair, that you could be outside minding your own business when the sun comes along and warms some of the air next to the ground, and that this now bouyant air would begin to rise,











and that this rising air would move into lower pressure surroundings and expand, and that the expansion would take energy from inside the parcel of air and cause the air to cool, and that the air could eventually cool to its dew point temperature and cause a cloud to form,







and that the air would continue to rise, expand, and cool even more, eventually dropping below freezing, and that ice crystals and supercooled water droplets would begin to fill the middle of the cloud,




and that even on the hottest day in summer in Arizona the ice crystal process would produce precipitation particles like graupel that would begin to fall from the cloud, creating a strong downdraft and maybe even a microburst, and that collisions between the various types of precipitation particles inside the cloud would both create and separate electrical charge, and that positive charge would begin to buildup in the top of the ground and in the anvil and that negative charge would accumulate in a layer in the middle of the cloud that the negative charge in the cloud would attract positive charge in the ground beneath the cloud,









and that a complex series of processes could begin including a stepped leader, an upward connecting discharge, and a powerful return stroke, and that a bolt of lightning could strike and kill the poor fellow sitting in the chair on the ground.


It just doesn't seem possible, but it is, and it happens all the time.