On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:08:17 +0000 (UTC), Bertie the Bunyip
wrote:

Jose wrote in news:lVzbi.3474$bP5.1427
:

Is there a good correlation between the appearance of rain in a
developing CB and the point at which the storm reaches its peak? I'm
familiar with the standard three stage picture of thunderstorm
development, and the fact that if significant winds are present a storm
can keep building despite the dissipating effect of rain. The context
of my question is flying near tall cumulus under which strong rain is
falling, but which has not yet developed into a full fledged
thunderstorm. It would seem to me that the rain is dissipating the
energy of the storm and that the storm is unlikely to continue towering
into a thunderstorm (making it safer to skirt closer to).


Nope, the rain is increasing it by releasing latent heat.

Yup. The change of state from vapor to liquid gives off a lot of
energy and from liquid to solid (hail) a LOT more.

Some storms as you said in a later post just don't have enough energy
available to "grow up", and when a mature thunderstorm dies, it may
suddenly lose the strong updrafts that are holding literally hundreds
of thousands of tons of water "up there" and it all comes down at
once.


Bertie