The speed of sound (thunder) is 343 metres a second (roughly). We can say the speed of light (lightning, ie the time it takes for us to see a lightning strike) is infinitely fast for the purposes of estimating the distance of a lightning strike (299,792,458 metres a second... you see it as it happens even if you were observing it from outer space).
Therefore, when you see a strike and three seconds pass until you hear thunder, that is 1km (well, 3 x 343 - 1.029km but close enough). 6 seconds, 2km, 9 seconds, 3km and on so on. If you see lightning and hear thunder in less than a second I'd wonder what exactly you're doing trying to count!
Huge severe complex in SA From Adel To Woomera This will tend to a large heavy rain band and move into W parts in the morning after the first band has already dumped 20-50mm for most and loads more to come.
Second storm will scrape just south of here but with that bow expect some very nasty winds to think 6 hours ago that storm was near Whyalla unreal how fast they are all moving.
Lots more rain and storms to come will be a very wet and thundery AM here i feel could be looking at another 50mm+ event total
12mm this morning
24mm from evening storm
Loads more to come from SA all building very nicely
Fly to LA at 12pm going to be an interesting flight
The stuff near Warrnambool is not dying Ryan, it's just clearing out of the region.
Dark Eye, you will probably see some clearence shortly and a little fine weather for a while. Heavy rain and storms should develop again overnight and into the morning. Looking at the radar further west, some development is occurring ahead of the major band of storms near Adelaide currently, so I expect the rain and storms to redevelop overnight for the southwest of the state. The SA BoM have also kept the STW current for SE parts even though storms are not occurring currently, as they expect development overnight.
Well. I am off to bed!! Night. I'll be listening to the rain and thunder.
Jake - Senior AWF Forecaster
Feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions.
weathergasm wrote:The speed of sound (thunder) is 343 metres a second (roughly). We can say the speed of light (lightning, ie the time it takes for us to see a lightning strike) is infinitely fast for the purposes of estimating the distance of a lightning strike (299,792,458 metres a second... you see it as it happens even if you were observing it from outer space).
Therefore, when you see a strike and three seconds pass until you hear thunder, that is 1km (well, 3 x 343 - 1.029km but close enough). 6 seconds, 2km, 9 seconds, 3km and on so on. If you see lightning and hear thunder in less than a second I'd wonder what exactly you're doing trying to count!
Yeah I learnt the 3 to 1 rule nightshift obs at perth ap for me, good to watch the storms etc. happening over your way ppl while doing metars
"I'm in with the sane, does that make me Insane?" "I lycra like that"
Just went to bed and not 10 mins the front of it whacked through.... ~90mm/hr rain rate for a few minutes, wind howling and a few massive rumbles. Settled down now thankfully, all the downpipes are overflowing!
That band of storms coming through Adelaide ATM is insane. I flew into Melbourne tonight from Perth, landing at about 23:30, so have seen quite a lot of flashes for the last 90min or so of the flight. We descended through part of the north-south band going through Ballarat ATM, and it got a bit bumpy I have to say
Once we were below the cloud deck it was constant flashing out to the WSW all the way into landing. Once in I could not believe how humid it was - it was like landing on the late night flight into Bali!!!
Not sure how this will all hold up by the time it reaches Melbourne but there is plenty of moisture around if nothing else.