-- Count seconds between the flash of lightning and the thunder
-- Divide by 5.
-- The result is the number of miles between you and the lightning
this is because you hear the thunder after it actually makes the sound ( because sound travells ) . lightenging and thunder happen at exactly the same time... so if u see lightenging, try counting how many seconds until u hear the thunder. if it is 5 seconds the storm is 5 miles away into the sky, 6 seconds would be 6 miles 7secs 7 miles and so on. hope this helped :) xx
About 12 kilometers (7.45 miles). After you see a bolt of lightning, for every 3 seconds until you hear the thunder, it means it is one kilometer away (3 seconds = 1 kilometer). This is because the sound wave created by the lightning is traveling at about 330 m/sec (in dry air, the speed of sound is about 343 m/sec or 1127 ft/sec).You can also divide by 5 to determine the approximate number of miles. In this case it would be calculated as about 7.2 miles away.
it means the storm is about 1 mile away
When you see a lightning bolt, start counting how many seconds till you hear thunder. Divide that number by 5 and that tells you how far away the lightning bolt was in miles. http://www.easycalculation.com/weather/lightning.php
A lightning strike is about 1,100 feet away if you hear the thunder one second after the lightning flash. The distance varies somewhat with temperature, air pressure, and other environmental conditions.
First, watch for lightning. The second it hits the ground, starts counting in seconds. Stop when you hear thunder. divide the seconds by 5 to get how many miles away the lightning is. For kilometers, divide the seconds by 3.
Light is virtually instantaneous over any distance you'd be aware of a thunderstorm going on. Sound, however, takes five seconds to travel through air for each mile. If the thunder and the lightning are simultaneous, the lightning strike is very close to you. If the thunder is five seconds after the lightning, the lightning was one mile away. If the thunder is ten seconds after the lightning, the lightning was 2 miles away, and so on.
A typical lightning strike lasts for about 0.2 to 0.3 seconds.
What I do know is it takes 5 seconds for the sound waves to travel 1 mile.So, if it's 5 seconds per mile, take 40 seconds and divide by 5 and the answer is 8 miles. That means if you count 40 seconds and hear the thunder, the flash was 8 miles away.One more thing, every second, the sound travels .2 miles.
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.
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.
Seconds are a measure of time and miles are a measure of distance. There is no answer.
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.
18.7 miles in 100 seconds = 673.2 miles per hour.
1,243.6 seconds to cover 19 miles at 55mph
~6 mi