1 Answer - Sort by: Date | Rating
Light from the lightning strike arrives to your eyes virtually instantaneously. But thunder is sound, and thus travels at 770 mph (about 5 seconds to travel a mile, or 3 seconds to travel a kilometre).
So, from the time you see the lightning until you see the thunder, count the number of seconds before you hear thunder. And then
divide by 3 (to measure distance in km)
or
divide by 5 (to measure distance in miles)
One problem is that often the sound of thunder that you hear doesn't go with the flash of lightning that you saw. It may go with a different flash. This is especially true if the lightning started high in the cloud, in which case the the thunder is closer than the formula suggests. Or if the storm is settled in (there are lightning strikes all around you). Where the formula works best is when there is a clear storm front where lightning strikes are happening.
So, from the time you see the lightning until you see the thunder, count the number of seconds before you hear thunder. And then
divide by 3 (to measure distance in km)
or
divide by 5 (to measure distance in miles)
One problem is that often the sound of thunder that you hear doesn't go with the flash of lightning that you saw. It may go with a different flash. This is especially true if the lightning started high in the cloud, in which case the the thunder is closer than the formula suggests. Or if the storm is settled in (there are lightning strikes all around you). Where the formula works best is when there is a clear storm front where lightning strikes are happening.
0
0
- How Does Gerbil Adapts In Sahara Desert?
- How Can You Distinguish Extrusive From Intrusive Igneous Rock?
- Where Is The New Forest?
- What6 Where The Five Pieces Of Edvidance Used To Supported Wegeners Thoery Of Continental Drift?
- How Did Wegner Think Mountains Formed?
- What Is The Appearance Of A Gorilla?
- How Is Limestone Made Safe For Humans?
- Where Is The Cushion Star In The Food Chain?
- Describe Tropical Thorn Forest And Scrubs?
- How The Philippines Exist In Volcanic Eruption?
- How Many People Survived The Asian Tsunami?
- Where Is The Eden Project?
- Where Is The Eden Project In England?
- How Do Scientistis Find Where A Eathquake Happened?
- How Does Desert Form?
- What Was The Damage Caused In The Tsunami 2004?
- How Do Scientists Know How Big An Earthquake Is And Were It Happened?
- How Many Days Does It Rain In Tenerife?
- What Is The 4 Steps On How Weather Forecast Is Main?
- Is Limestone In Concrete?
- What Do You Call The Opening Of The Earth?
- What Starts The Food Chain Of The Animal Eaters?
- Is Lightning Good Or Bad?
- Does Southern Alaska Have A Marine West Coast Climate?
- What's Sustenance Farming>?
- Why Does The Sound Of Lightning (thunder) Come First?
- Is Thunder The Sound Coming Off The Lightning?
- Why Does Lightning Always Come Before Thunder?
- Why Is There Thunder And Lightning?
- Why Does Thunder Come Before Lightning?
- Does Lightning Come Before Thunder?
- What Would Be The First Thunder Or Lightning?why?
- Can You Have Thunder Without Lightning?
- What Happens First Lightning Or Thunder?
- Why Does Lightning Always Come First Before Thunder?
- Which Comes First Thunder Or Lightning?
- Which Can We See First?-lightning Or Thunder
- What Is The Difference Between Thunder And Lightning?
- What Causes Lighting And Thunder? How Far Away Is Lightning?
- Why Do We Count Between Thunder And Lightning?
- Thunder Is To Lightning As Grape Is To____?

New Comment - Comments are editable for 5 min.