PPS#111 | Why are people scared of thunder?
- Rebecca D'Souza
- Mar 27, 2022
- 3 min read
Boom, boom, boom!
Thunder and lighting
banging their large fists into the sky,
a soft void.
Of electricity,
light and clouds.
Breaking open the sky.
Vibrating doors, causing fear.
Lighting up the sky.
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Several times I’ve seen people scared of thunder and wondered why it causes fright in some but not in all of us. I love thunder and lightning, from a safe, sheltered spot of course. The loudness and the power of thunder, as if it was cracking open the sky. Like a hammer being brought down hard on a nail. The way the loudness of thunder feels like it’s going through you is energising. And the sharp loudness and firmity of lighting, lighting up the sky. Personally, I think that thunder and lighting is best enjoyed when seen over the sea, with dark clouds over ocean waters.
Here’s some copy-paste.
Dear Patient Reader,
First of all, “what is thunder and lightning?”
“Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack.”[1] I love the anticipation of the eminent loud crack as it rumbles. “The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning [in the sky] produces a rapid expansion of the air in the path of a lightning bolt. In turn, this expansion of air creates a sonic shock wave, often referred to as a “thunderclap” or “peal of thunder”. [Quick fact,] the study of thunder is known as brontology.[2]
Thunder has a loud, explosive, resounding sound, [which is] produced by the explosive expansion of air heated by a lightning discharge.[3] The fact that thunder resounds is the reason why it feels like it's reverberating and ringing through you. Lightning on the other hand, is “the occurrence of a natural electrostatic discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground, or, within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash and typically also thunder.” Technically, a lighting bolt is an electric current. Essentially, “lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves. [Plus,] most lightning occurs within the clouds.”[4] The relation here is that “lightning causes thunder, a sound from the shock wave which develops as gases in the vicinity of the discharge experience a sudden increase in pressure.”[5]
Though lightning bolts may be one of nature’s most spectacular displays, it rests as one of its most deadly. That’s because there’s a holy moly amount of volts in the typical lighting flash. “About 300 million Volts and about 30,000 Amps. In comparison, household current is 120 Volts and 15 Amps.” Yeah. In addition lighting bolts can be classified into three main categories which are:
1. Intracloud (IC) Lightning
2. Cloud-To-Cloud (CC or Inter-Cloud) Lightning
3. Cloud-To-Ground (CG) Lightning More
“Why are people scared of thunder?”
When it comes to lightning, there is its phobia. An innate fear of lightning. Astraphobia is the fear of thunder and lightning. Like most of the existing phobias we know of, astraphobia is an instinct. An instinct our primitive ancestors needed to survive. An instinctual need to search for and find safety. To block out the loudness of lightning. To protect ourselves from very loud, threatening booms and the damage or death lightning caused. In our very distant past, finding shelter and keeping it was a staple of survival. Naturally, anything that endangered their well-being resulted in it being a threat. A threat which genetically ingrained itself tens of thousands of years ago into Homo sapiens and other animals.
Lastly, “how to stay safe during a thunderstorm?”
Avoid conductors of electricity, like water and metal, and stay earthed; in contact with the ground. You wouldn’t want to be like that fried bat still dangling from the electrical cables now would you?
Till the next.
P.S. Fun Fact: “There are about 40 to 50 lightning strikes around the world every second making the annual hitting over 1 billion times. And, every 1 in 12,000 people is likely to get struck by lightning. The good news is that out of the 500 people who do, 90% survive.”
P.P.S. The next post is titled “Follow the Leader; Why are humans copycats?”
References
[2] "Ibid." [1]
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