How can I tell how far away a lightning strike is?
When you see a lightning strike, you will hear the thunder later because sound travels slower than light. Sound travels at approximately 1100 feet per second at ground level, so it takes light about 5 seconds to travel one mile (5280 feet). For the purpose of estimation, we can assume that the light travels instantaneously. Therefore, if you measure the time between when you see the lightning and when you hear it, divide by 5 and that is the approximate number of miles away that the lightning struck. Or, if you’re of the metric persuasion, divide by three to find out how many kilometers away the lightning struck.
Related Questions
- Seeing as lightning is merely a movement of electricity from a place of high potential energy to an area of low potential energy... is it possible for lightning to occur without the presence of clouds?
- What causes the sharp (claping) thunder as oppose to the long lasting heavy rolling thunder?
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