wats@scicom.alphacdc.com (Bruce Watson) (02/17/88)
In response to the concern of the shuttle stack on its 3-hour rollout from the VAB: Most activity that is lightning risky is done in the early morning. In the summer cumulonimbus builds up in the early afternoon and produces thunderstorms by mid-to-late afternoon; hence the early rising and astronaut breakfast, etc. Otherwise thunderstorms occur with the advance of cold fronts, whose progress is more or less predictable.