Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I’d come to understand thunderstorms as an afternoon/evening event. There was no concious decision involved here–that’s just when they happened.
Now having relocated to Kansas, most of the thunderstorms I’ve experienced have been morning storms–ranging from early early morning to simply noon-ish. I’m told (by annother recently former Pennsylvanian) the same happens in Minnesota.
Why? Am I making things up / drawing conclusions from too little data? Is there a meteorological reason for this?
Here in the big W, the night usually brings with it the calm.
It takes a while in the morning for the sun to activate the winds and bring in fronts from the lake and such. The heat from the daylight stirs up winds which can cause a storm to become more active and cause the thunder you’re used to.
My guess (IANAM) is that these are not local cells, but rather ones that have formed further south, in the afternoon and evening, that have then travelled to your locality.
I think part of what you have observed relates to the generally Eastern movement of thunderstorms plus the change in time zones. The storms form perhaps over the Rookies earlier in the day and arrive later a couple of states over.