Thunderstorm

“ In London the gradual approach of a thunderstorm working up from a long distance is not perceived, and the suddenness of the roar for a moment startled her. But from her childhood she had always shown a strange liking to watch a thunderstorm, and, if possible, to be in it. It was her habit, when others were alarmed and covered their eyes, to go close to the window in order to see the lightning, and once she had been caught actually outside the door peering round the corner, because the strength of the tempest lay in that direction. ”

“ When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. ”

“ Sometimes we have a hot, scorching gale all day, drying and parching one’s very skin up, and shriveling one’s lovely roses like the blast from a furnace: then in the afternoon a dark cloud sails suddenly up from behind the hills to the west. It is over the house before one knows it is coming: a loud clap of thunder shakes the very ground beneath one’s feet, others follow rapidly, and a thunderstorm bewilders one for some ten minutes or so. A few drops of cold rain fall to the sound of the distant thunder, now rolling away eastward, which yet “struggles and howls at fits.” ”

“ Dwellers in temperate lands can form no conception of the awful grandeur of a tropical tempest, the fury of the wind, the vivid lightning that spatters the sky and runs in chains and linked patterns across its darkness, the awful sound of the crashing thunder that seems to shake [Pg 209] the world. But, terrifying at first, they became actually wearisome from their frequency. When a thunderstorm has raged about one's house for eighteen hours, circling round the hills and returning again and again, one gets simply bored with it—there is no other expression to describe the feeling. ”

“ The characteristic wind of a thunderstorm is the squall that rushes out in front of the storm when close at hand. This blast of wind, lightning, hail and torrential rain are all agencies of destruction in severe thunderstorms. ”

“ In the grandeur and terror of a thunderstorm, many see nothing but manifestations of Almighty wrath. When the volleys of the bursting cloud are piercing the disturbed air, and the thunders of the discharge are pealing their dreadful notes above our heads, the chemical combinations of the noxious exhalations arising from the putrefying animal and vegetable masses of this earth are effected, elements fitted for the purposes of health and vegetation are formed, and brought to the ground in the heavy rains which usually follow these storms. ”

“ One gets the same sort of feeling one has when a thunderstorm is just going to burst overhead. When it has begun you don't mind it, but while you are waiting for the first flash, the first clap of thunder, you get a sort of creepy feeling. ”

“ With the summer thunderstorm this cycle usually consists of the following: rising temperature and humidity, pressure oscillations, decreasing winds, increasing potential of atmospheric electricity, thickening clouds and consequent growing darkness, distant lightning, rumbling thunder, the lightning growing more vivid and the thunder louder and louder as the storm approaches, a squall of wind coming from the direction of the storm itself, accompanied by a marked fall in temperature, inconstant humidity, large drops of rain, followed by a downpour, often accompanied by hail. ”

“ The sound they make is like heavy thunder, with a prolonged roar after deep thudding sounds—a perpetual thunderstorm easily heard three or four miles away. The roar in our tent and the shaking of the ground one or two miles distant from points of discharge seems startlingly near. ”

“ When a thunderstorm threatened to break out, one of the sticks was put into a small fire, in order that the hallowed smoke, ascending to the clouds, might ward off the lightning from the house and the hail from the fields and gardens. ”

“ Most tornadoes are thunderstorms, but not vice versa. The thunderstorm is not essentially a vortex, but rather a wind squall marked by sudden changes of temperature and pressure, bearing with it massive clouds fraught with rain, or hail, and disruptive electric charges flashing frequently to earth, or from point to point in the sky. ”

“ The thunderstorm is caused by cold and heavy air from above breaking through into a lighter and superheated stratum next the earth. Some of them have a horizontal rolling motion which throws forward the cool air in the direction in which the storm is moving. It seldom is more than five or ten miles in width and twenty to thirty miles in length. In general, thunderstorms move from the west toward some eastern point, more often southwest to northeast. ”

“ Some thunderstorms partake of the features of both these types, and, on the other hand, additional classes are distinguished by many authorities. It is a common occurrence for thunderstorm conditions, starting in some small area, to travel across country at a speed of perhaps thirty or forty miles an hour, at the same time spreading out fanwise until the front of the storm is hundreds of miles in length. ”

“ It would be necessary to go to some length to explain the familiar electrical manifestations of the thunderstorm—some points, indeed, are not perfectly clear to meteorologists—but it should be stated that these are always the result, not the cause, of the storm. Lightning is an electrical discharge between cloud and earth, or cloud and cloud, and thunder is simply the violent soundwave set up by the sudden expansion of the heated air along the path of the discharge,—the same acoustic phenomenon that accompanies an ordinary explosion. ”

“ If one has to be outdoors and exposed to a violent thunderstorm, it is advisable, so far as danger from lightning is concerned, to get soaking wet, because wet clothes are much better conductors, and dry ones poorer, than the human body. ”

“ In hot summers we were subject to thunderstorms of an amazing violence, and at such times, when thunder and lightning were nearest together and most terrifying to everybody else, he would stand out of doors gazing calmly up at the sky as if the blinding flashes and world- shaking thunder-crashes had some soothing effect, like music, on his mind. ”

“ Sitting on the hillside when the hot season was coming near its end he saw the thunderstorms come across the hills. From far away they came, black shadows in the distance, and the thunder like far off surf upon the shore. Nearer they would grow and nearer, passing from ridge to ridge, their long white skirts trailing upon the mountain sides, until they came right overhead and the lightning flashed blindingly, while the thunder roared in great trumpet tones that shuddered through the gorges. The man watched them and he saw how gods were born. ”

“ It is not our intention to enter upon the general consideration of thunderstorms; the facts which we have given may be of service to the young observer; and finally, as it is interesting to be able to judge of the locality of a thunderstorm, the following simple rule will be of service, and sufficiently accurate:—Note by a second’s watch the number of seconds which elapse from the sight of the lightning to the commencement of the thunder; divide them by five, and the quotient will be the distance in miles. ”

“ Several interesting matters are raised by this article. They are ―
(1) The influence of sea-breezes on the uplift of the overlying air and, hence on convectional cloud and thunderstorm formation in certain favourable cases;
(2) The maximum size of hailstones;
(3) The vertical currents associated with hailstones and with the pressure rise in thunderstorms ”

“ Besides the thunderstorms like those just described, which come so close and are often so awful in their results, there is another kind of storm we frequently see in the rainy season which is an unmixed source of delight. ”

“ Rain may be expected when the sky assumes an almost colourless appearance in the direction of the Wind, especially if lines of dark or muddy cirro-stratus lie above and about the horizon.
Thunderstorms.
Thunderstorms are most frequent in the tropics and diminish in frequency towards the poles. They are more frequent in summer than in winter and in mountainous countries than in plains, during the day than during the night, and after midday than before. ”

“ From a study of individual storms based upon the records of many stations it has been found that thunderstorms are most frequently formed in the southern half of a cyclone, where warm and light southerly winds are superimposed by cold and heavy northwesterly winds. In the restoration of equilibrium between these horizontal air masses there is violent vertical convection, accompanied by lightning, thunder, heavy rain, and occasionally hail. ”

“ Thunderstorms, or rather showers, occurring in the afternoons and lasting about twenty minutes or half an hour, when much rain will fall at that one time, are the usual form in which the bulk of the precipitation occurs. These storms arise rapidly, are seldom preceded by the warning sense of discomfort that is usually felt in lower regions, and disappear as quickly, leaving a sense of refreshment after the heat, with few and rapidly evaporating signs of moisture upon the soil. ”

“ Thunderstorms occur almost daily during the wet season. By lightning I lost several people. In one case, whilst standing watching a man remove seedlings from a nursery bed, standing indeed immediately behind and close to him, there came a thrilling flash of lightning. ”

“ Thunderstorms.—Local thunderstorms are frequent in the humid portions of the tropics. They have a marked diurnal periodicity, find their best opportunity in the equatorial belt of weak pressure gradients and high temperature, and are commonly associated with the rainy season, being most common at the beginning and end of the regular rains. In many places, thunderstorms occur daily throughout their season, with extraordinary regularity and great intensity. ”

“ He measures the height and thickness of the clouds, tries to calculate the electric potential necessary for lightning, records the depth and weight of water precipitated by the storm, and thereby learns that there are several distinct kinds of whirling air that produce thunderstorms. ”

“ These thunderstorms are of terrific violence when they break over a tract of country, and in a few hours the dry watercourses are converted into rushing torrents, and the whole country for a time rejoices in abundant moisture. The effect on vegetation is wonderful. ”

“ There is a sudden flying gust of wind; the air is astir all about you: was not that thunder? Is it the heat thickening? Is a storm coming on?... And now there is a faint flash of lightning.... Ah, this is a storm! The sun is still blazing; you can still go on hunting. But the storm-cloud grows; its front edge, drawn out like a long sleeve, bends over into an arch. The grass, the bushes, everything around grows dark.... Make haste! over there you think you catch sight of a hay barn... ”

“ All day long there were signs of a gathering storm. Great big banks of fierce, sullen clouds began to bank up in the afternoon, and far-off, ominous sounds of thunder were heard. At first it was a mere growl, and the edges of the great jagged clouds were illumined by lightning. By-and-bye the thunder grew louder, and cruel forked and chain lightning began to play in the heavens.
The children wandered round the verandah and looked at the sky, and wondered and wondered again would it rain.
“I believe it’ll be the end of the drought,” said Mother, hopefully. ”

“ And no appearance in nature joins more powerfully the elements of grandeur and awe than a heavy thunder-storm. When, suddenly, from the breast of a dark thunder-cloud a brilliant flash of light darts zigzag to the earth, followed by a loud crackling noise which softens in the distance into weaker volumes of sound, terror seizes the birds of the air and the cattle in the field. The man who is born to rule the storm rejoices in the powerful display ”

“ The cloud in the horizon began to extend itself, increasing and gradually rising and covering the sky, and the old man’s prediction was evidently about to be fulfilled. A dead calm lay upon the river, and a preternatural stillness clothed in a sort of stupor the whole face of nature around us; while low muttering rolls of thunder from the dark cloud, and the frequent, sudden, crinkling lightning, glittering across its surface, warned us that we were about to encounter one of those violent and terrible thunder-storms which not unfrequently occur in this part of the country. ”

“ Every time the thunder burst above their heads, he could feel her heart beat against his. One of her arms was round him; the other he held; all wet it was with the fear. He did not speak: he only clasped her closer every now and then, that she might be reminded of her shelter.
Twenty minutes, or so, and the violence of the storm abated. The lightning grew less frequent, the thunder distant and more distant. At length the sound wholly ceased, and the lightning subsided into that harmless sheet lightning which is so beautiful to look at in the far-off horizon. ”

“ About eight o'clock, loud claps of thunder, each in kind resembling a screech, or the blast of a trumpet, rather than the rumbling sound of thunder in Europe, burst over our heads, and were succeeded by vivid flashes of forked lightning. We now made every necessary preparation for a storm, by striking the top-gallant-masts, with their yards, close reefing the topsails and foresail, bending the storm-staysail, and battening down the main hatch, over which two tarpaulins were nailed, for the better preservation of the cargo. ”

“ We hear the thunder, which discharged is
At same time with the fire and by same cause,
Born of the same collision.
In following wise
The clouds suffuse with leaping light the lands,
And the storm flashes with tremulous elan:
When the wind hath invaded a cloud, and, whirling there,
Hath wrought (as I have shown above) the cloud
Into a hollow with a thickened crust,
It becomes hot of own velocity:
Just as thou seest how motion will o'erheat
And set ablaze all objects,--verily
A leaden ball, hurtling through length of space,
Even melts. ”