A lightning strike can puncture the skin of an aircraft and damage communications and electronic navigational equipment. Although lightning has been suspected of igniting fuel vapors and causing an explosion, serious accidents due to lightning strikes are rare. Nearby lightning can blind the pilot, rendering him or her momentarily unable to navigate either by instrument or by visual reference. Nearby lightning can also induce permanent errors in the magnetic compass. Lightning discharges, even distant ones, can disrupt radio communications on low and medium frequencies. Though lightning intensity and frequency have no simple relationship to other storm parameters, severe storms, as a rule, have a high frequency of lightning.

Turbine engines have a limit on the amount of water they can ingest. Updrafts are present in many thunderstorms, particularly those in the developing stages. If the updraft velocity in the thunderstorm approaches or exceeds the terminal velocity of the falling raindrops, very high concentrations of water may occur. It is possible that these concentrations can be in excess of the quantity of water turbine engines are designed to ingest. Therefore, severe thunderstorms may contain areas of high water concentration, which could result in flameout and/or structural failure of one or more engines.

Knowledge of the atmosphere and the forces acting within it to create weather is essential to understand how weather affects a flight. By understanding basic weather theories, a pilot can make sound decisions during flight planning after receiving weather briefings. For additional information on the topics discussed in this chapter, see the following publications as amended: AC 00-6, Aviation Weather For Pilots and Flight Operations Personnel; AC 00-24, Thunderstorms; AC 00-45, Aviation Weather Services; AC 91-74, Pilot Guide: Flight in Icing Conditions; and chapter 7, section 2 of the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM).