How do you figure out the distance lightning is from you?

Question

Is it a one second count per mile? What's the final word on this?

Answer 1

When you see the flash, count 1,001 - 1,002 - 1,003 ... until you hear the thunder and the nearest portion of the bolt will be one mile away for every five seconds. Thunder rumbles because not all parts of the bolt are the same distance from you and the lightning zig zags across the sky. The sound is caused by the sudden expansion of the air due to heat and the bolt discharges along its entire length almost instantly. Any portion of the bolt that is on a path nearly perpendicular to your line of site (like staring at a wall straight on) will sound like a sharp crack with all the segment's sound arriving together as opposed to portions of the bolt traveling along your line of sight where the sound will arrive from the nearest point before the farthest point. Portions of the bolt at angles between the extremes will sound different (crack or whimper) accordingly. Of course the nearest portion of the bolt will sound louder than distant portions due to the inverse square law. As a result, someone several miles from you will hear the same thunder but it will rumble quite differently for them. You will have your own private show.

Answer 2

I thought it was 1 sec for every mile till you hear thunder from the point of seeing lightning, but everyone else is saying 5 sec. So, look it up in a kids science book. Those are the best because they have raw facts that are actually important instead of a bunch of other useless tidbits that we didn't need to know.

Answer 3

5 seconds per mile.

Answer 4

Listen for the Boom sound, count seconds ( one second per mile), count until you see the lightening. The # 0f seconds ="s how many miles the lightening is away from you.

Answer 5

i was once told that if you cound the seconds between the lightning and thunder, it equals approx 1 mile away.
so if you see lightning and 5 seconds later, you hear thunder - it's about 5 miles away.

Remember that light travels faster than sound

Answer 6

5 seconds = 1 mile, from strike to hearing the thunder. Or 5 "mississippi's" or 5 "one-one-thousand"s

Answer 7

this can look previous formed, yet...... once you spot a lightning flash, or better importantly, a strike! count number the seconds until eventually you listen the sound. it really is what number miles that's from you. in case you want measurements, merely calculate the gap in miles........provide or take a 2d or so. count number it your self.......I do. it quite works in Florida. undergo in thoughts that sound will be not straight forward, as in echos or reverberations in geology or maybe cloud formations. Too cool. desire it facilitates. it may well be diverse in a canyon in accordance to length and intensity.

Answer 8

one second count per mile is what I have been told.

Answer 9

For sure...For each five-second count, the lightening is approximately one mile (1500 meters) away.

Answer 10

i thought it is ~300 yards per second, so around 5 seconds/mile.