Counting the Thunder

The storm started just after bedtime. First the rain began drumming on the roof. Then the bedroom flashed white for a second. Then, a moment later: Boom!

Arjun pulled the blanket over his head. Another flash. Another boom. He climbed out of bed and went to find his mom.

She was in the kitchen, looking out at the rain. "Can't sleep?" she asked. Arjun shook his head. "Come and sit with me. Let me show you something that might help."

They sat by the window, wrapped in a blanket. "We're safe inside the house," Mom said. "And thunder can't hurt us. It's just a sound. Shall we work out how far away the storm is?"

"You can do that?" said Arjun.

"Light travels incredibly fast," said Mom. "When there's a flash of lightning, we see it almost instantly. But sound is much slower. The thunder takes longer to reach us. So, if we count the seconds between the flash and the boom, we can work out the distance."

Flash! "Now count," said Mom.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine," said Arjun. Boom!

"Nine seconds," said Mom. "Sound travels about one kilometer in three seconds. So, nine divided by three?"

Arjun counted on his fingers. "Three. The storm is three kilometers away!"

"Well done," said Mom. "That's further than your school."

They kept counting. Flash. Twelve seconds. "Four kilometers," said Arjun. Flash. Fifteen seconds. "Five kilometers! It's moving away!"

He found he wasn't scared anymore. He was too busy doing sums.

"What actually is thunder?" he asked.

"Lightning is a giant spark of electricity," said Mom. "It heats the air around it so fast, to hotter than the surface of the sun, that the air bursts outward. That burst makes the boom."

"Whoa," said Arjun. "So thunder is air going bang."

"Pretty much," laughed Mom. "There's one important rule, though. If you're outside and you hear thunder, go indoors. When thunder roars, go indoors. Then you can count it safely from the window, like us."

Flash. Arjun counted to twenty-four before the thunder came, and it was only a low grumble. "Eight kilometers," he said with a yawn.

Mom walked him back to bed. The rain was soft and steady now. Arjun lay listening. Somewhere far away, there was one last, faint rumble. He didn't even see the flash. He was already asleep.

⭐ The End ⭐