Review on the Observation Investigation of Thunderstorms

Thunderstorm is defined as the severe convective weather with thunder and lightning. On the one hand, it brings much useful precipitation in spring and summer in many regions, especially in semi-arid areas. On the other hand, however, its accompanying hails, heavy rain, tornados, and strong wind bursts cause much loss in life and property over the world wide. So, thunderstorm is one of severe weather phenomena to be continuously investigated in meteorological and atmospheric sciences. The observational data of thunderstorm are always required in studying storm initiation and development mechanism, developing mesoscale models, and predicting and warning thunderstorm hazards. This paper aims to review the advance in thunderstorm observation investigations with focus on the description of some field experiments over the past 6 decades.