There are thunderstorms and then there are thunderstorms. In England, it hardly ever hails or hurricanes in Hereford.....
In Florida summertime, the daily thunderstorms are almost benign. The heat builds up during the day, the CuNimbs are quite orderly, parading down the centre of the sandy peninsula. The airliners follow the shoreline, keeping the ride gentle and smooth for the holidaymakers. The local light aircraft do not try to surmount these battlements of cu, they simply scoot underneath, dodging the showers, maintaining VFR. I've never been as brave as the locals...but intending to drive from Tampa to St. Pete, there were tornados forecast. The sky over the bridge was so black it was green! we made a sharp right turn into Tampa airport and took refuge in the ground floor of the garage; all flights were cancelled, but like a well behaved Florida cell, the tornado simply knocked over a couple of mailboxes and burger signs, and carried on its way.
It is altogether different in Texas, and in the rest of the continental United States, when cold air moving southeast from Canada meets warm air from the Carribean, the cu nimb clouds form a terrible front any time of night or day. I had planned to fly a rented Cessna from Corpus Christi to Austin, and very proud of my newly minted IR, phoned up Flight Service to file my flight plan.
"I do not recommend that you go today" the helpful chap advised. "But I have an instrument rating...." I told him. "Well", he said, "across your planned route there is a front with embedded Cu Nimbs tops to 45,000 feet, with rain, hail, and tornados...."
I decided to fly next day.
So flying power, one stays clear of these black bottom monsters. But as you will note, reading on this thread what glider pilots get up to, we are quite tempted to tickle the black bottoms of towering cu, there one will find significant rising air. As Piper Classique tells, in the old days, thats how the intrepid glider pilots set gain of height records. We do wear parachutes, so have that option when the wings come off. Flying under a nice big one in the Soviet Union in 1989, the rain was going up, not down, and when a bolt of lightning flashed I lost my nerve and went elsewhere without delay.