KIDS' LIGHTNING INFORMATION AND SAFETY

by Sabrina

FLASH TO BANG PAGE

How close was that lightning?

By counting the seconds between the lightning "flash" and the "bang" of thunder, you can tell how far away the lightning was. Each five seconds equals one mile. If you count 15 seconds, the flash was 3 miles away and you know that you are in a high danger zone. Six miles (30 second count) is still in the high danger zone.

Lightning can strike far from where the rain is falling, and sometimes even when no rain is falling at all. This is why people are sometimes hit where they can see blue sky and the sun is shining. Bolt from the Blue is an awesome PHOTO that shows lightning striking miles away from the storm cloud.

Ron Holle of the National Severe Storms Laboratory drew this picture to show what "flash-to-bang" distance means... The rings are 1, 2 and 3 miles from the lightning strike and the thunder sound will take 5, 10 and 15 seconds to reach the rings. Remember that lightning can strike up to 10 (maybe even 15 or more) miles away from a storm, so if you drew rings up to 10 miles, there would be danger anywhere inside the 10th ring. How long would it take the sound of thunder to reach the 10th ring?

The back arrow on your browser will return you to the spot on the lightning page that you came from. The following link will take you to the top of the page.

Back to my Kids' lightning safety page.

anubisbastet@earthlink.net