how far away lightning
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Lightning Distance Calculator The delay between when you see lightning and when you hear thunder occurs because sound travels much, much slower than light. Sound travels through air at about 1100 to 1200 feet per second (our default is 1150). That is a little more than one mile per five seconds. This approximation will give you a good idea of how far away the lightning was.
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- Rating Newest Oldest. Best Answer: A bolt of lightning can travel at a speed of 45 km/s (100,000 mph, 160,000 km/h). It can reach temperatures approaching 28,000 °C (50,000 °F), hot enough to fuse soil or sand into glass channels. Source(s): appsptspcl · 8 years ago.
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- Paul on Jul 14, 2009. Lightning has been know to move horizontally up to 50 miles from a storm. It has also been known to strike under clear skies. This happens when a thunderstorm is on one side of a mountain and it is clear on the other side.
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What causes thunder? First off, it’s impossible to have lightning without thunder and it’s impossible to have thunder without lightning. Heat lightning is nothing more than seeing lightning and not hearing the thunder, because the storm is too far away. Lightning is pretty darn bright and can be seen for tens of miles. Thunder is a compression wave and will dissipate with time and distance. Under excellent conditions, thunder can be heard about 12 miles away from the lightning strike. However most of the time conditions aren’t this good and we usually can’t hear thunder any more than about 5 miles away.
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- Calculating the Distance from Lightning. 1  1. Watch the sky for a flash of lightning. 2  2. Count the number of seconds until you hear thunder. If you have a digital or analog watch, begin timing as soon as you see the lightning and stop as soon as you hear the thunder. 3  3. Calculate the distance from lightning in miles or kilometers.
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Nautical & Sailing Terms & Nomenclature Next time you see a storm, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder. Take the number of seconds and divide by 5 and that will tell you how far away the storm is in miles. For example: If you counted 10 seconds between the lightning and the thunder, the lightning is 2 miles away! Know the Lingo SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH - A severe thunderstorm (damaging winds of 58 miles per hour or more, or 1 hail in diameter or greater) is likely to develop in your area.
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How Far Away Is That Storm? Lightning is over 40,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A bolt of lightning heats the air along its path causing it to expand rapidly. Thunder is the sound caused by the rapidly expanding atmosphere. The purpose of this experiment is to watch lightning and hear thunder to give you clues about how far away you are from a storm. One thunderstorm. A stop watch (or the ability to say one-Mississippi) 2. For every 5 seconds the storm is one mile away.
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How Far Away Is Lightning? View full size image. Next time you're stuck in a thunderstorm, try this easy way to calculate how far away you are from lightning strikes. Just count the number of seconds that pass between a flash of lightning and the crack of thunder that follows it, then divide that number by five.
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Calculating the Distance to a Lightning Strike While not an exact science, since humidity has slight effects on the speed of sound, since actual temperature may be above or below 70° F, and since the discharge of lightning is highly unpredictable, this calculation does allow one to quickly estimate his or her distance from a storm.
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Atmospheric electricity Cloud to ground Lightning in the global atmospheric electrical circuit. This is an example of plasma present at Earth's surface. Typically, lightning discharges 30,000 amperes, at up to 100 million volts, and emits light, radio waves, x-rays and even gamma rays .
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The Science of Thunder New lightning data showed that most CG flashes in a storm were within 5-6 miles (8-9.6 km) of the previous flash. The LSG recommended what has become known as the 30/30 Rule. Using the flash-to-bang method, lightning that has a 30-second count between the flash and the thunder is 6 miles (9.6 km) away.
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Lightning Lightning hotspots: The place on Earth where lightning occurs most often is near the small village of Kifuka in the mountains of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the elevation is around 975 m (3,200 ft).
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How Far Away Is That Storm? Lightning is over 40,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A bolt of lightning heats the air along its path causing it to expand rapidly. Thunder is the sound caused by the rapidly expanding atmosphere. The purpose of this experiment is to watch lightning and hear thunder to give you clues about how far away you are from a storm. 1. After you see a flash of lightning, count the number of seconds until you hear the thunder. (Use the stop watch or count One-Mississippi, Two-Mississippi, Three-Mississippi, etc.)
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How far can a storm be to actually hear thunder? Lightning can strike up to 16 Km (10 miles) from a thunderstorm so if im not mistaking since you can hear thunder another 10 miles from lightning, then im guessing you can hear thunder if a storm was around 20 miles away.
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Why Is Lightning Dangerous? Lightning is the first thunderstorm hazard to arrive and the last to leave, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. Lightning can actually strike outside the storm that produced it. Although most lightning will strike within 10 miles of its parent thunderstorm, it can strike much farther away.
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Lightning: FAQ Lightning and other storm-related electrical features act to maintain a permanent potential of some 300 kilovolts between the earth's crust, which is negatively charged, and the ionosphere (well above 30 miles, or 50 kilometers), which is positively charged.
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Truth Test | Can you count the seconds between lightning and thunder to determine distance? It takes roughly five seconds for the sound of super heated air or thunder to travel one mile, so if you see a flash of lightning and count 10 seconds until you hear the thunder, you need to divide by five to determine this storm is roughly two miles away.
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Lightning: Just for kids If you're not close to shelter, here are some things to stay away from: 1  tall trees or poles. 2  completely open areas like fields. 3  bodies of water, like lakes or the ocean. 4  metal fences, sports equipment, bikes, etc.  A lightning flash is no more than one inch wide.
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Lightning Distance Calculator The formula is to divide the number of seconds by the speed of sound in feet per second. The delay between when you see lightning and when you hear thunder occurs because sound travels much, much slower than light. Sound travels through air at about 1100 to 1200 feet per second (our default is 1150). That is a little more than one mile per five seconds.
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Lightning Distance Calculator English Lightning Distance Calculator. Here you can calculate the Distance from Lightning from of the speed of the sound. The seconds will be counted from the flash of the lightning till the sound of the thunder. The sounds travel about 1100 to 1200 feet/sec. Here the default will be 1150.
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- Thunder travels at the speed of sound (1,090 feet per second) Therefore, it takes about five seconds to travel a mile. A single bolt of lightning can discharge about 100 million bolts of electricity and can travel as far a 10 miles from a cloud.
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Speed of Thunder The next time you see a flash of lightning count the number of seconds before the thunder arrives, then divide this number by five to find out how far the lightning is away. If it takes 10 seconds for the thunder to roll in, the lightning struck about 2 miles away (3 kilometers away).
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Thunder: Lightning's Sound Waves You can use thunder to calculate how far away a lightning strike is. When you see the flash, count the seconds until you hear the thunder. Divide the seconds by five (5), and that will be the distance in miles to the strike. For instance, thunder heard 10 seconds after the lightning means the lightning struck 2 miles away.
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What is the approximate distance of a thunderstorm if you notice a three-second delay between the flash of lightning and the sound of the thunder? If you hear thunder 12 seconds after you see a flash of lightning how far away is the thunderstorm? As sounds travels at about 343 meters per second (1,215 feet per second), The 12 second difference translates to 4.1 Kilometers (about 2.5 miles).
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Can you calculate how far away lightning struck by thunder? It is possible to figure out how far away a lightning strike is with some simple math­. Sound travels through air at the speed of sound.. Officially, the speed of sound is 331.3 meters per second (1,087 feet per second) in dry air at 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit). At a temperature like 28 degrees C (82 degrees F), the speed is 346 meters per second.
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- You can practice this with a clock to get the timing right if you want. Every 5 seconds between when you see lightning and when you hear the thunder is one mile. If you count 10 seconds between the lightning and thunder, the lightning struck 2 miles away. For further information about lightning and safety, visit the website of the National Lightning Safety Institute.