Home
Weather Dublin
WeatherRadar
RainfallRadar
TemperatureRadar
WindRadar
LightningRadar
Weather News
Editor's Pick
Discover the app
Weather widget
Contact us
Apps
    Home / Weather News /

    Eye on the sky - A sky lover's guide to thunderstorms

17:00
19 May 2022

Eye on the sky
A sky lover’s guide to thunderstorms

WeatherRadar for Friday 20th May
WeatherRadar for Friday 20th May. Click to explore more!

With a threat of some thunderstorms in the forecast, particularly in Ireland, we thought we would take this opportunity to create a visual guide of what you might spot in the sky tomorrow.

Cumulonimbus

Cumulonimbus storm clouds erupt from smaller, fair-weather cumulus clouds, and even alone can produce some pretty spectacular structures.

Another type of cloud associated with thunderstorms, though more rare, are mammatus clouds. These are a child of cumulonimbus clouds and though seemingly ominous, could be indicative of both past or impending severe weather.

Keep your eyes peeled for an explainer piece on mammatus clouds tomorrow.

Lightning

Whilst you won’t want to be in close proximity to lightning, given their dangerous nature, watching the sky light up safely from afar is a treat not to be missed.

Lightning is naturally more visible at night, but storms that develop at night tend to become ‘elevated’, meaning they form higher up in the atmosphere, where it is warmer than at the surface.

These elevated storms tend to be more intense as they create stronger downdrafts further from the surface.

As consequence, these storms tend to produce a greater number of cloud to ground lightning strikes, though tomorrow’s look to be more of a daytime feature.

Rainbows

But it’s not just menacing features to keep an eye out for during a thunderstorm; with the harshness of nature also comes raw beauty.

Rainbows often follow a spell of sunshine and showers, and form when sunlight is scattered through water droplets.

This light is then reflected and refracted, creating a rainbow as the light exits the droplets.

It’s not just sunshine that needs to be present, plenty of other conditions need to align, including the angle of the sun in the sky, the position of the sun in relation to the viewer, and of course the presence of water droplets.

So, keep your eyes on the sky tomorrow, especially if you're in Ireland! And don't forget to share your shots with us here.

Weather & Radar editorial team
More on the topic
Thundery showers move through today. N. Ireland to Scotland. . . Tuesday 13 October 2026
Weather radar showing blue rain bands and lightning across western and central Scotland, with storms near Glasgow and northeast of Edinburgh.
Tuesday 13 October 2026

N. Ireland to Scotland

Thundery showers move through today
Warnings for a windswept Wednesday. Coastal gales. . . Tuesday 13 October 2026
Wind map showing 45 mph near Aberdeen, 40 mph near Glasgow and Cork, and red strong wind warning symbols across western Scotland and Ireland.
Tuesday 13 October 2026

Coastal gales

Warnings for a windswept Wednesday
Former hurricane to record storm. Isaias affecting Europe. . . Wednesday 14 October 2026
WindRadar shows a powerful storm system south-west of Iceland. Red and purple colours indicate extreme wind speeds. Arrows show the direction of rotation, whilst a windsock symbol warns of a storm.
Wednesday 14 October 2026

Isaias affecting Europe

Former hurricane to record storm
All weather news
This might also interest you
New records for England and Wales. Broken again tomorrow?. . . Thursday 25 June 2026
Temperature map of southwest Britain on 25.06 showing extreme heat across southern Wales and southwest England, with Bute Park in Cardiff highlighted at 34.2°C and Yeovilton at 36.4°C amid widespread deep red heat zones.
Thursday 25 June 2026

Broken again tomorrow?

New records for England and Wales
Super Typhoon Bavi threatens Taiwan. Up to 1,000 mm of rain. . Weather Videos. Wednesday 8 July 2026
The image shows an intense tropical cyclone over the western Pacific, east of Taiwan and the Philippines. The centre of the system is depicted as a light purple and white vortex with a clearly visible eye, surrounded by a ring of red and orange areas indicating the strongest wind speeds. A white arrow marks the typhoon’s predicted track towards the north-west, in the direction of Taiwan. To the west of the storm lie the Philippines, with the cities of Manila and Cebu; to the north of these lies Taiwan, with Taipei. Further west, the Chinese coast, including Hong Kong, and parts of Vietnam can be seen. The coloured wind map shows predominantly green areas outside the storm’s core, indicating significantly weaker winds. White streamlines illustrate the typhoon’s anti-clockwise circulation in the Northern Hemisphere. The highest wind speeds are concentrated around the eye of the cyclone.
Weather VideosWednesday 8 July 2026

Up to 1,000 mm of rain

Super Typhoon Bavi threatens Taiwan
A stormy week in the skies above. Your weather - Your shots. . . Sunday 30 August 2026
Split image showing lightning branching beneath dark storm clouds above rooftops on the left and an orange-pink sunset over a calm sea on the right.
Sunday 30 August 2026

Your weather - Your shots

A stormy week in the skies above
All articles
Weather & Radar

Weather & Radar is also available on

Google Play StoreApp Store

Company

Contact us Privacy Policy Legal info Accessibility statement

Services

Uploader

Socials

facebooktwitteryouTubelinkList