Weird thunder storm

[Harry Bloomfield]

From around 15:00 through to 21:00 yesterday, we had a bit of a storm. I recorded 60mm of rain came down during the course of it and several properties were flooded at the lower extremes of the village.

What was really weird, was the noise from the thunder. Aside from the usual crashes, there was a continuous noise, which sounded rather like a jet engine roar, which lasted for tens of minutes at a time. I have never heard the likes of it before and just wondered what mechanism would allow the noise from the thunder to continue for such a long time and such a steady noise?

It sounded so unlike thunder, I went out several times, to see if it might be wind noise or some other locally generated noise. It wasn't because several others reported the same noise, in the path of the same storm.

[Brian-Gaff]

Well, I've experienced this in the past mostly near hilly areas. I don't think anyone really knew, but my feeling is in the static sort of leaking thought the rain. If you put up an aerial when you have static charged rain, you can clearly hear the noise as it discharges, and indeed sometimes feel the static in the air just beforehand. As you say, most of the other explanations are to do with wind effects, which I certainly do not accept as that would vary greatly as wind in these storms is often gusty or cyclonic but short lived. Was there any hail associated with this storm, as the sound of lumps of ice whizzing through the air on updraghts has been know to cause eerie sounds in American storms just before Tornados occur. Not wnting to worry you of course!

Brian

[Andy Burns]

I wish we had some rain to cool things down, it was still 28°C at 9pm, I thought I'd seen on the weather forecast a horizontal band of rain due to sweep up across the whole country ... the late night weather report showed it as a vertical band the only covered the west.

There was a combine working until 02:30 here, I know they really like to keep going once they've started, but I doubt they'd keep going throughout a storm?

[Brian-Gaff]

No when I heard this some years ago, it was in June. I think its either the sound of the huge upright in towering cumulous with ice in it, or electrostatic effects multiplied by the size of the storm cell. Certainly, nothing to worry about. The storms that worry me and defy all science are the electrical storms with almost continuous lightning inside clouds but there is no sound of thunder at all. Is there a critical size of spark that causes thunder, as to me any spark makes a sound, even a little one, as you are suddenly heating up air after all. Brian

[Martin Brown]

There was a lot of cloud to cloud lightning that was bouncing around here. Pretty much did for any chance of connecting to the internet. It wasn't strictly continuous but the storm was so extensive that there was always some noise from long thunderstrikes reverberating around.

Only superficial flooding of the usual places round here.

Interesting how under such very thick cloud the grass looks super green and red flowers redder but blue flowers look noticeably dimmer.

[Graham.]

Classic horror movie forked lightning here in N Manchester, Thunder about 4 seconds delayed at the closest. It did rain very heavily, but only for a few minutes.

[ss]

Could it be the severity and size of the storm, I have heard similar in Turkey where they have spectacular thunder storms, sometimes it is like the thunder never stops and I put that down to there being so many lightning flashes over such a wide area that in between the ones viewed locally you got the rumble from more distant ones without seeing the flash.

[Brian Gaff]

I quite like thunderstorms, and my few close calls have not put me off, after all if its your day to die, etc. The only issue I had is that now in later life I have tinnitus, and blame the high db of thunder less than 10 feet away which left me semi deaf for 30 minutes. Not to be recommended, but then one would not expect it just walking down the road. Brian

[Graham.]

The most spectacular storm I ever saw was at sea from a cruse ship.

On the same cruse I got my most spectacular view of the night sky ever.

Puts you in mind of the ancient navigators.

[harry]

We had the same thing only a bit earlier. (W. Midlands) Lightening pretty well continuous. Only seen similar in the tropics.

[Martin Brown]

I think the extent of the storm was large enough that it could have been.

The other noise you can sometimes get in a thunderstorm and it is bad news if you hear it is a sort of fizzy noise as the air starts to break down. A strike is imminent and in roughly your location...

Annoyingly the strike doesn't always follow the obvious highest point path. I was in a building with a large metal roof area underneath a much higher supergrid pylon that took a direct hit. That is the lightning went for the building rather than the higher pointy pylon. It was incredibly loud and did for the switchboard and all mains power.

[tony sayer]

Yes its a bugger doing that, we had a very mice microwave unit on the side of a church the silly thing could have taken the strike up the top of the spire some 30 meters higher but it came in sideways and that was that:)(...

As to the rolling thunder we had the mother of all storms over Cambridge on the night if the 17th July that went on for 3 hours and there were reported 200 flashes a minute in the area, continuous thunder it was too!...

Useful site this one...

and

[harry]

Just been down our local pub. A tornado associated with the event wrecked the beer garden + several large trees.

[whisky-dave]

yeah that's what the all say, if you get a bit tipsy and run round the beer garden naked just admit to it ;-)

[newshound]

You were lucky not to be caught by stray ground current. When I was standing by our back door, and the house at the end of the garden had its chimney and back door taken out, about 50 yards away. And that certainly made us all jump!

[tony sayer]

So it would!. Its referred to as step distance. Consider the earth as a large conducting area well the plane part of it. Put x million jigger volts there and theres going the be quite a potential difference developed over the earth nearby.

There are a few videos of Youtube showing teams of football players and some animals all falling over with electric shocks during lightning strikes on playing fields because of this very effect...

[harry]

Must be global climate change.:-0