Day 20 -- Thunder

Loud sound puts me off, generally. I don't like firecrackers. One exception: thunder.

Kerala, where I was during my school and college days, gets a lot of rain accompanied by lightning and thunder. So, most houses, especially in hilly areas, have lightning conductors atop them. Our house had one.

Also, in Kerala, when there is lightning and thunder, people unplug electrical devices as they could possibly get damaged.

All said and done, I like that occasional streak of light in the sky and the roar that rumbles thereafter.

Not actually "thereafter", our physics teacher had told us in school. 

The sound is the result of the sudden expansion of air because of the high-voltage electricity that lightning produces; and both happen simultaneously. 

One of the fun activities in my school days was to determine how far away was the lightning. It's simple. 

Sounds travels at around 340 m in one second. Or, it takes 5 seconds for sound to travel one mile. It varies depending upon temperature and pressure.

I used to count the number of seconds it took for me to hear the thunder; and I multiplied that by 340.  The lightning was that many meters away. (Or divide the number of seconds by 5; it's that many miles away.)

My mother was scared of lightning and thunder. She always asked me to close the windows. In my excitement, I used to plead with her to keep the windows open, so I could see the lightning. 

But later, I realised that she was right: it's safer to keep the windows closed, because colder air conducts electricity better than glass window panes.

They are dangerous, I know. Last year, more than 70 people died in various parts of India after they were struck by lightning. 

Lighting and thunder is very rare -- just a few days in a whole year -- where I live now, Bengaluru. 

Rains are different when there is an occasional lighting and thunder. I don't know if I should say that I miss them. 

I don't want them to be close by. Let them be far away, giving me enough time to count quite a few seconds before I hear that clap. 

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This post is part of the blogging challenge in April every year, wherein bloggers put up one post a day, from A to Z, every day except Sundays. 

I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z. I am also on A2Z April Challenge.

Image credit: Pixabay