How Do Thunder And Lightning Form?
Thunder and lightning usually exist in thunderstorms. These are caused when clouds form as a result of warm air rising and then cooling off. If part of the cloud gets cold enough to go below freezing, usually due to a high elevation, ice particles form and begin to collide, forming charges, most of them negative, but some positive. These negative charges then try to connect with the positive charges on the ground, creating thunder and lightning.
What Is The Difference Between Thunder And Lightning?
Thunder and lightning are forever intertwined. The two of them are forever associated with each other, often used in the same sentence back to back (I even did it in the last one), and some people will use them interchangeably and mix up their usage. However, there is a difference. The physical electric bolt that you see is called lightning, and the sound it makes is called thunder. This isn’t just common people, as one of the world’s most successful franchises, Pokémon, has lightning-based attacks called ‘thunderbolt’, ‘thunder shock’ and simply ‘thunder’. However, it is important in more official terms that we use ‘lightning’ to refer to the visual and physical manifestation of electricity, and ‘thunder’ as the sound lightning makes.
Why Does Lightning Move Faster Than Thunder?
Lightning travels faster than thunder because light travels faster than sound. It’s not a small difference either, with light being almost 900,000 times as fast as sound. While this might not be noticeable when speaking with someone just a few feet away, the difference becomes very noticeable at distances larger than a football field (just over a quarter of a second).
Can You Measure How Far Away Thunder And Lightning Are?
Yes. While an ordinary person likely doesn’t have the advanced scientific instruments, you can use the fact that light moves faster than sound to your advantage. Since light’s travel is almost instantaneous, we can use sound’s slower speed as a gauge.
Sound travels at 343 m/s, meaning that it takes just a touch less than 3 seconds to travel 1000m (1km) and 5 seconds to travel 1 mile. You can use this information to count the time between lightning and thunder to estimate how far away a bolt of lightning is. If it takes 3 seconds, you know that the stroke of lightning is 1 km away. This lets you have a much more precise idea of how far away the storm is, rather than just if the storm is coming or going.
How Do I Stay Safe During A Thunderstorm?
Similar to how you can do things to prepare for a thunderstorm, there are things you can do during the storm to keep yourself safe.
Get inside if possible. When inside, stay inside.
Avoid using electronics or using your bath. Doing either of these makes you very vulnerable if your home or electrical circuits are struck.
Stay away from windows, and keep them closed. Lightning can curve in through an open window.
If you are stuck outside and can’t get inside, avoid open fields. Lightning likes to strike the tallest objects in an area, and in an open field, that can be you.
