How can you determine the distance of an oncoming storm?

[Jaximus-Lion]

We have been getting a lot of rain here in Sweden and there is a lot of lightning happening too.

So one of my neighbors was telling me how close the lightning was and he swears it hit the field right behind us (barley 50 meters away) so i told him that is insane because it would sound like the sky dropped a nuke on us if it would be so close.

As a basic knowledge ! The time between the lightning/flash and the sound, you could determine how far it is. So lets say the time was about 5 seconds between the light and the sound so it means it's about 5 km-ish away. He never believed me and kept swearing that it struck right behind us on the field 🤷‍♂️.

How do you do it? How would you know? Tell us the ways you have learned.

[normalice]

I just look at wunderground maps.

But yeah, the speed of sound is about one mile every 4 seconds. You can use this to estimate the distance between you and where lighting hits. Note that this is only loosely correlated with where the storm is, as lighting moves in three dimensions and the first sound you hear will be from the part closest to you, which may or not even be under the storm clouds, and you are hearing a distance measured in only one dimension.

[exitseven]

It is true that lightning always come before thunder. This is because the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound. It you count the number of seconds from when you see the lightning until you hear the thunder this tells you how many miles away the storm is.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO

[purplepoppy]

I was taught the same as your friend but it's only a rough guide as air humidity plays a big part in how far/fast sound travels.

[purplepoppy]

I mean the 5 second rule

[ariadneR]

Same way you said. One time i counted and it was a like a split second. It was really lod and it sounded like it was right ontop

[Static_In_The_Attic]

Nowadays Weather Radar!

[TheSpaceGnome]

Its actually not anywhere near that loud when it hits close by.

[Jaximus-Lion]

No! It was not loud. I think my neighbor was exaggerating. I have been close to lightings few times and it was really really loud and scary.

[Agape93]

I just eyeball it best i can

[butterly248]

I was taught to clap as a kid 😂