By Paul Bertorelli

A friend of ours, a California resident, laments that the only thing he misses in living on the West Coast are thunderstorms. While we understand the sentiment, being based in Florida—the world capitol of lightning—we certainly don’t share the longing.

But we can say that thunderstorms have become infinitely more interesting in the past couple of years for one reason: datalink weather for the cockpit. Summer flying in Florida used to hold a certain angst if not an outright terror but being able to see thunderstorms develop, move and die on a 256-color cockpit display makes them more fascinating than frightening. …