What's hotter than the sun?

Here in the Northwest (rain capitol), everyone's seen a thunderstorm. They come as no surprise to us. But, believe it or not, thunderstorms are actually one of the most dangerous of all weather activity. Especially since 40,000 of them occur throughout the world everyday.
Thunderstorms are experienced everywhere; even in the polar regions-although they are very rare due to cold surface temperatures. They tend to be more frequent in tropical rainforest areas, where they occur almost everyday. A thunderstorm forms when "moist, unstable air is lifted vertically into the atmosphere". This results in condensation and the release of latent heat. During a thunderstorm you may experience hail, heavy rain, strong winds, thunder, lightning, and even tornadoes.
Tornadoes are very common in the Midwest and southern United States where warm air from the south collides with cold air from the north. This usually results in the formation of a mesocyclone. A mesocyclone is a strong "vertical updraft". Mesocyclones can form over a storm and produce a type of cloud dome. Half of these produce tornadoes.
We (being mostly me) seem to complain a lot about the rain here. We should be thankful, however, that we don't get worse weather. In some midwest and southern states, people experience hail the size of baseballs, wind gusts up to 97 kilometers per hour, and dangerous lightning. Did you know the temperature of a lightning bolt can be hotter than the sun?