To see a live view of the weather in Roatan, my favorite resort hosts live views of their resort which are updated every 45 seconds and can be viewed here.Because it is Spring in Roatán, let's simply focus on thunderstorms.
Each thunderstorm has three stages:
Updraft Cumulus Stage
Updraft Cumulus Stage
In Photo 1.1, below, you can see the warm air being lifted up vertically, which is resulting in large, vertical cumulus cloud formations.
In Photo 1.2, above, warm air has mixed with surrounding seawater, the warm air has risen vertically, which has created cumulus cloud formations.
Mature Stage
In this stage, warm air has risen above the freezing level and condensed. There are strong downdrafts that are pulled down by precipitation. In Photo 2.1, below, moisture has condensed in the clouds on the left part of the picture, and light rainfall is visibly present (shown by the blue arrows).
Photo 2.1 - Light Precipitation and Downdrafts, Image Credit: Flickr
In Photo 2.2, above, moisture has condensed, many downdrafts have been brought down by precipitation and this has produced a heavy rainfall.
Dissipating Stage
The resultant rain has cooled the surrounding air, and air then flows out of the storm - which creates high winds.
In Photo 3.1, above, the rain has decreased in intensity, the rainfall has cooled the air surrounding the storm, which has caused strong winds, shown by the trees at the bottom of the photo.
