Re: Radio Frequency of Lightning?

[Laurie Taylor <laurie-taylor@uiowa.edu>]

I'll try to post this again - Sorry!

One website to try is
"www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/mcgreevy"
regarding listening in with ham radios.  

Also, very simply an AM radio makes an excellent lightning detector. During
a thunderstorm you can listen in on individual lightning bolts on your AM
radio. Tune the radio to a station and each crackling sound that you hear
is from the radio waves emitted by a lightning bolt. You will notice that
you hear the static crackle at the same moment you see a flash of
lightning. This is because radio waves and visible light both travel at the
speed of light. The sound of thunder travels at the speed of sound (about
1,000 feet per second) and thus lags behind the flash of light (or AM
crackle).  You willnotice that there will be some lightning bolts that you
detect that are not seen. These are lightning bolts that are high up in the
thunderstorm cloud or even in another thunderstorm cell. 

Happy Listening!

Laurie Taylor
laurie-taylor@uiowa.edu
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