Close Encounter With Lightning & Thunder

The photo on the left shows you a lightning hitting a big tree during a thunderstorm. Looking at this photo really sends chills down my spine.

Today afternoon is a gloomy one. The sky was dark and the wind blew strongly. Phew, I just had my lunch and I was really bloated. The Chinese common test starts at 2.00pm but we have to be seated by 1.50pm. Argh, how stupid, so I have to walk fast, I told myself.

At 3.30pm, it started to rain like cats and dogs. After several rounds of lightning and thunder I felt that the thunderstorm is getting really near, although it had been raining for quite some time. Suddenly I saw a bright light that disappeared immediately, followed by a huge roar from the clouds above. The entire class heard the horrible ‘buzz’ sound, probably made by the lighting when it hit the lightning rod just above our classroom.

Chaos. People upstairs were screaming. The fuse blew. Electrical blackout. How horrible. Luckily our classroom was okay as the classroom upstairs absorbed all the shock from the lightning.

After that we still heard a lot of roaring outside the classroom. How horrible. I was not scared, but my heart just pound very quickly. Maybe I was really panic.

After the Chinese common test Wilson and I went to the staff room. While walking along the corridor of Block C we were talking about lightning and thunder. Wilson told me that you divide the total time (in seconds) difference between the occurrence of the lightning and the thunder, the number you get will be that distance (in km) the source of the lightning and thunder away from us.

I was fascinated when a lightning flashed just 100m on our right, hitting the lightning rod of the classroom block just beside our tower block. Sparks flew all around the place.

Before I could figure out what is the time difference with the thunder, we heard the thunder that sounds like 1 million people playing the drum just beside me. I was nearly deaf by then.

I awe, I asked Wilson: “Looks like we just had a (in fact, numerous) close encounter(s) with lightning & thunder.”