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Count the seconds between when the lightning flashes and the sound of the thunder. Divide the number of seconds that pass by five to get the distance in miles or by eight to get the number of kilometers. Note that this only gives you the distance to the bolt of lightning. The storm cell itself is probably at least a few miles across.
Since light travels faster than sound, you can tell how many miles away a thunder storm is by counting. Lightning strikes. 5 seconds pass and you heard thunder. The thunder storm is 5 miles away.
To estimate your distance from a thunderstorm count the number of seconds between a flash of lightning and the next clap of thunder. Divide your answer by 5. See the related link below.
very roughly 7000 feet
For a long time it was thought by many people that the number of seconds after the lightning strikes is the miles the center of the storm is from you. Although this does show how light travels faster than sound, this system is wrong. The actual method for finding the distance the heart of the storm is from you is by counting after you see lightning; and stop counting after you hear the thunder. Now, for every five seconds after the lightning struck until you hear the thunder, it is one mile away. So if ten seconds go by between lightning and thunder, the center of the storm is two miles away.
Count the seconds between when the lightning flashes and the sound of the thunder. Divide the number of seconds that pass by five to get the distance in miles or by eight to get the number of kilometers. Note that this only gives you the distance to the bolt of lightning. The storm cell itself is probably at least a few miles across.
Since light travels faster than sound, you can tell how many miles away a thunder storm is by counting. Lightning strikes. 5 seconds pass and you heard thunder. The thunder storm is 5 miles away.
To estimate your distance from a thunderstorm count the number of seconds between a flash of lightning and the next clap of thunder. Divide your answer by 5. See the related link below.
To tell how far away a storm is note the seconds between the appearance of lightning and the sound of thunder. Every second between lightning and thunder represents one mile.
very roughly 7000 feet
it means the storm is about 1 mile away
For a long time it was thought by many people that the number of seconds after the lightning strikes is the miles the center of the storm is from you. Although this does show how light travels faster than sound, this system is wrong. The actual method for finding the distance the heart of the storm is from you is by counting after you see lightning; and stop counting after you hear the thunder. Now, for every five seconds after the lightning struck until you hear the thunder, it is one mile away. So if ten seconds go by between lightning and thunder, the center of the storm is two miles away.
If you count the number of seconds from when you see the flash of lightening to when you hear the thunder, you will have a rough estimate as how far the storm is.
It is not false, but it may be inaccurate, because -- lightning can come from different parts of the storm, and hit miles away -- if multiple flashes occur, the sound cannot be assigned to one bolt -- the storm is high in the air, so part of the distance measured may be altitude All the counting seconds measures is the distance between you and the closest point on the lightning's path (every 5 seconds is about a mile, every 3 seconds is about a kilometer). But sometimes warm air will refract sound away from you.
roughly a mile
First, look for a flash of lightning. After seeing one, count seconds. After research, I have seen that you can count seconds any way you prefer, like "One Mississippi, Two Mississippi," and so on, or "1, 100, 2, 100" and so on. Count whichever you like or other methods. They are both the same in time elapsed. Keep counting seconds until you hear a clap of thunder. Divide the number of seconds by five. The number you have is how many miles away the storm is.
lightning helps to reduce the electric field between a storm and the earth