Bobby Gilbert, age 10, of Wichita, Kansas, for his question:

Do the worst thunderstorms come at night?

A thunderstorm seems worst at night because then the busy world is asleep. There is less noise to compete with the roar of the thunder. But, over the greater part of our land, the worst and most frequent thunderstorms occur on summer afternoons.

This rule, however, does not hold true for the regions around the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Uichita is in the Arkansas river, which is part of the Mississippi river system. So, chances are, you mot your worst and most frequent thunderstorms at night between April and September.

Not all thunderstorms occur in the summer sea but over the oceans they are worst and most  frequent during the last half of the winter and in the night.