The last few days in Portugal have been marked by a lot of rain and thunderstorms and Civil Protection even issued a warning to the population about the effects of the Garoe depression. Thunderstorms are the phenomenon that most worries the Portuguese and there are still many doubts about them. Therefore, learn to see how far away the storm is from you and adopt essential prevention measures.
High humidity is the necessary condition for thunderstorms. It is an extreme phenomenon of atmospheric instability and is characterized by the occurrence of lightning and thunder. It is worth mentioning that the light from lightning results from the incandescence of the air and the sound of thunder is a consequence of the sudden expansion of the air.
As the speed of light in air is greater than the speed of sound, when you are faced with a storm, light will always arrive before sound. It is precisely the time interval between the arrival of light and the arrival of sound that you can learn how close the storm is to you.
Find out how to calculate how far away the thunderstorm is from you
As reported, the speed of light is approximately 300,000,000 meters per second, so lightning is visible almost instantly. In turn, the speed of sound in air is 340 meters per second. This means that the distance in meters to the place where the thunderstorm occurred is obtained by multiplying 340 by the time interval, in seconds, between the lightning and the thunder.
For example, if the time interval between the arrival of lightning and the arrival of sound is 10 seconds, the storm is 3,400 meters away from you, that is, 3.4 kilometers. In this case, stay at home and away from windows, avoid showering or using water for any purpose and turn off the television, computer and other electrical appliances.
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