Something Magical about Thunderstorms
As a kid I was always transfixed by watching thunderstorms from my bedroom window and even to this day, a good thunderstorm in the Arizona desert captures my attention and imagination. The first thing that attracts me to a thunderstorm is the smell of fresh rain in the air and then nothing mistakes the smell of ozone as the thunderstorm closes in. Almost as if a storm is scouring the impurities of the air and acts as a cleaning system for the sky overhead. As I write this post, I am in the middle of a Thunderstorm that is striking Casa Grande, AZ. Not sure how wise it is to be on my computer during a storm, but I am doing it anyway.
The lighting arcs across the sky so many times in a single minute I can barely keep count, the thunder is still a good two to three seconds behind the lightning strikes so I know it is still several miles away or the bolts are still very high in the sky. Arizona has some of the most devastating thunderstorms, particularly in the non-populated cities. The heat from the city’s causes the thunderstorms to mostly circle the outskirts of the city. Though thunderstorms to strike right over the cities they are never as violent as the ones that strike smaller towns or used to strike before the cities grew large in my opinion.
Some interesting thunderstorm and lightning facts for those who enjoy thunderstorms: (These facts come from National Geographic)
A Single Lightning bolt can stretch over five miles in length
A lightning bolt heats the air to around 50,000 degree’s Fahrenheit
A lightning bold contains an average of a hundred million volts of electricity
There is an average of 100 lightning strikes occuring on earth every given second
The odds of being struck by lightning in your lifetime are 1 in 3000
Lighting can occur from volcanic eruptions or extremely violent forest fires (the extreme heat changes the air temperature so rapidly it causes the lighting as a result of the friction between air temperature and pressure)
If you can hear thunder, you are within 10 miles of a lightning strike and are within range of a rogue strike
400 people annually survive lightning strikes, there is a 10% death rate with lightning strikes, and 70% chance you suffer some permanent disability as a result of the strike (memory loss, burns…etc). Meaning only 20% of all people struck manage to walk away either unscathed or with temporary injury.
So enjoy the thunderstorms for they clear the air, and bring the temperatures down. The rains bring out the wildlife, we found hundreds of baby toads jumping in my front yard this morning.
Be safe and stay indoors during a thunderstorm.
-Dragon Blogger
No related posts.
