I woke up in the early morning hours to the sound of thunder. I laid there with my eyes open for a few minutes and saw another flash of lightening. I silently counted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, BOOM.
I've always heard that if there's a significant period of time between the flash and the sound of thunder, that the storm is a distance away.
I Googled tonight and found out how to calculate the relationship between lightening and the sound of thunder. As it turns out, it's not an old wives tale.
When a thunderstorm is nearby, you'll see lightening and hear the sound of thunder immediately. It's possible to calculate approximately how far the storm is from you by counting the seconds between the flash and the sound of thunder.
Since sound travels roughly a mile every five seconds, the storm I heard last night was roughly two miles away.
Soon the sound of rain began pounding our metal roof, and it sounded like a cheering crowd off in the distance.
The next time I saw a flash, the time before I heard thunder was slightly longer which I theorized meant the storm was moving away from us. I would have continued with the experiment, but I fell asleep.
This morning as the coffee perked, I opened the front door to let the dogs out. All three of them started to bolt out the door, but then pulled up short when they realized it was raining. What a bunch of wusses, I thought to myself.
It rained for most of the day. I would have stayed inside myself, but I got an order for ten books, so I had to go to the UPS store.
Tonight the rain moved off to the east, but the wind kicked up out of the north and it feels more like winter's approaching, instead of Christmas time in the tropics.
I've always heard that if there's a significant period of time between the flash and the sound of thunder, that the storm is a distance away.
I Googled tonight and found out how to calculate the relationship between lightening and the sound of thunder. As it turns out, it's not an old wives tale.
When a thunderstorm is nearby, you'll see lightening and hear the sound of thunder immediately. It's possible to calculate approximately how far the storm is from you by counting the seconds between the flash and the sound of thunder.
Since sound travels roughly a mile every five seconds, the storm I heard last night was roughly two miles away.
Soon the sound of rain began pounding our metal roof, and it sounded like a cheering crowd off in the distance.
The next time I saw a flash, the time before I heard thunder was slightly longer which I theorized meant the storm was moving away from us. I would have continued with the experiment, but I fell asleep.
This morning as the coffee perked, I opened the front door to let the dogs out. All three of them started to bolt out the door, but then pulled up short when they realized it was raining. What a bunch of wusses, I thought to myself.
It rained for most of the day. I would have stayed inside myself, but I got an order for ten books, so I had to go to the UPS store.
Tonight the rain moved off to the east, but the wind kicked up out of the north and it feels more like winter's approaching, instead of Christmas time in the tropics.
My brother and I used to sit on the porch and count the seconds between the lightning and thunder to tell how far away it was. He was four years older than I and even in grade school he was very much "the scientist." I had forgotten about those counting calculations until reading this tonight.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me think of the days I sat on the porch swing watching the magnificent storms pass through. I was never smart enough to know about counting and calculating...just a dreamer and a wuss :)
ReplyDeleteWe're supposed to get a nice storm here tomorrow and Thursday. With any luck there'll be thunder and lightning. I'm geekily excited about it.
ReplyDelete