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In gallery: Clouds Convective clouds Cumulonimbus

Single-cell cumulonimbus over the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico (USA). The clouds at the center of the image are not related to the main storm, which has a downdraft below it. Single cell cumulonimbus often have no time to form a well-defined anvil before the storm collapses. Their lifetime is quite short, only between 30 and 60 minutes.