Thunder and Lightning

By Christine Tailer
HCP columnist 

We call him Lightning. As far as I know, everyone always has. He is my brother-in-law. He is a big man, standing 6'5" tall. 

He has bright blue eyes, and he always has a smile. His hugs are among the best in the world, and even though his namesake is almost always accompanied by thunder, our Lightning is a quiet fellow. He listens and smiles. They say that he got his name from his coach, who would holler out across the playing field as he slowly ambled along, "Run now, run like lightning!"

Last night as I lay in the cabin loft, I could see the dark sky outside the windows flashing with bright light. I started to count the seconds until I'd hear thunder, but just as I'd start counting another flash would light up the sky. Flash after flash, and thunderous crack after cracking boom, filled the night. Then the rain began to pour. I imagined a giant standing over the valley with lightning bolts in one hand and a huge firehose in the other, the hose aimed directly at our cabin.

Lightning, not the brother-in-law kind, is actually a gigantic spark of static electricity caused when water and ice particles collide inside a storm cloud. The particles strike each other as they rise and fall in updrafts and down drafts. This collision causes electrons to be knocked free, the positive ones rising to the top of the cloud while the negative electrons fall toward the bottom. When enough negative electrons have gathered, they are drawn towards the positive electrons, either inside the cloud or on the earth below. It is this attraction that bursts forth as a sudden bolt of electricity. Thunder is the resulting sound wave that is caused when the bolt of lightning instantly heats up and expands the air around it.

We all know the rule to determine how far away lightning actually is. The speed of light is faster than the speed of sound, so we count the number of seconds from when we first see the flash to when we hear the thunder, but I did not know, until I looked into it, that the number to which we count, must then be divided five. So, if you count five seconds between a flash of lightning and the sound of thunder, that means the lightning bolt is just one mile away.

I got out of bed and made the rounds to close all the windows. I could feel cool air blowing in as the rain splashed up against the screens. The night smelled full of energy. It was a good smell.

Back under the covers, I lay still with my eyes wide open, looking out the loft windows at the storm raging outside. I smiled. I felt safe and secure inside the sturdy log cabin Greg and I had built together. It was then that I thought of my brother-in-law.

It occurred to me that he was properly named after all. The storm was all around us, but I was safe and secure, just as I'm sure my sister-in-law feels safe and secure with this strong, gentle man by her side.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in south-central Ohio. Visit them on the web at straightcreekvalleyfarm.com.