A severe thunderstorm on the Mexican side of the Texas Big Bend grew to an estimated height of 68,000 feet on Monday evening, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) in San Antonio, Texas.

This is about twice the height of the typical cruising altitude of a large commercial jetliner, which is generally above 30,000 feet. For reference, the maximum cruising altitude of a Boeing 737-800 aircraft is 41,000 feet, according to airliners.net. The tops of this storm also reached a height of more than twice that of the summit of Mount Everest (29,029 feet).

According to weather.com meteorologist Tom Moore, who has been watching storms on satellite more than 30 years, "The supercell towered as high as I've seen in years."

Enhanced satellite imagery of supercell thunderstorms in Mexico on Monday evening.
Enhanced satellite imagery of supercell thunderstorms in Mexico on Monday evening.

It's not uncommon for thunderstorms to tower tens of thousands of feet into the atmosphere, forcing pilots to navigate around them. Mature thunderstorms often reach 40,000 to 60,000 feet, and it is not unheard of to see thunderstorms reach upward of 75,000 feet in the tropics.

Generally the taller the thunderstorm is, the more intense and dangerous its sensible weather are. Flash flooding, large hail, damaging wind gusts and lightning are more common with increasing storm top height.

According to the NWS, lightning typically can strike 10 to 15 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. However, stronger storms can spread lightning farther distances. The NWS said that lightning strikes in this storm were detected 50 to 60 miles away from its core.

As the sun set Monday evening, the height of the supercells became even more apparent. Storm tops remained illuminated with sunlight while the ground darkened as the sun dropped below the horizon. The animation below shows shadowing on the eastern side of the tallest thunderstorms where the sun is being blocked by clouds.

The supercell was part of a broken line of strong to severe storms that reached from the central plains into northeastern Mexico. There were a few reports of baseball-size hail along the Texas border from neighboring supercells. Wind damage was seen in northern Mexico near Nueva Rosita, which was near this towering thunderstorm.