Why are some storms Thunderstorms?

Summary

Summary of "Why Are Some Storms Thunderstorms?" - Who Smarted? Podcast Episode

Introduction to Thunderstorms The episode begins with the Trusty Narrator engaging young listeners by introducing the intriguing phenomenon of thunderstorms. At [00:03], the narrator poses a question to spark curiosity: "Can you guess approximately how many storms are happening right now? Is it 50, 100, or 500 more?" The answer revealed is staggering—approximately 2,000 thunderstorms occur simultaneously around the world every year, totaling an estimated 16 million thunderstorms annually.

Thor Enters the Scene Entering the discussion is Thor, who playfully claims, "And I bring the thunder" ([00:37]). The conversation quickly clarifies that this is not the Marvel superhero but the mythological God of Thunder, adding a humorous twist to the scientific explanations. Thor insists, "But I still carry a hammer" ([01:14], [01:16]) and humorously debates whether he causes thunderstorms, leading into the episode's central scientific exploration.

Understanding Thunderstorm Formation The Trusty Narrator transitions into the science behind thunderstorms, posing critical questions: "Does Thor cause thunderstorms? And if not, how do thunderstorms form? And what exactly is thunder?" ([01:23]-[01:26]). The explanation unfolds with a clear breakdown of the three essential ingredients needed for a thunderstorm:

1. Water or Moisture ([05:02]) – The sun's heat evaporates water, creating moisture in the air, especially on hot, humid days.
2. Instability ([05:18]) – This refers to the presence of warm, moist air near the ground with cooler, dry air above, commonly seen during summer.
3. Lift ([05:42]) – Factors like the sun’s heat, upward slopes (hills or mountains), or the collision of different air masses (fronts) cause the warm air to rise.

Formation of Clouds and Charged Particles As moisture rises and cools, it forms clouds ([06:35]), which can ascend up to 10 miles high ([07:06]), almost twice the height of Mount Everest. Inside these towering clouds, intricate processes occur: water droplets rise and freeze, collide with other droplets, and create charged particles ([07:29]). This buildup of positive and negative charges sets the stage for lightning.

The Role of Charges in Lightning Lizzy Lightning clarifies the relationship between charges: "In thunderclouds, positive charges rise to the top, while negative charges sit at the bottom" ([08:02]). The accumulation of negative charges seeks connection with positive charges, leading to lightning strikes. She explains, "You've got all these negative charges sitting at the bottom of a cloud, fighting hard to connect with positive charges" ([08:24]-[08:29]).

Why Lightning is Loud: The Science of Thunder When lightning strikes, it heats the surrounding air to five times hotter than the sun ([10:07]). This rapid heating causes the air to explode outward, creating a shockwave that we hear as thunder. Lizzy elaborates, "Within a fraction of a second, lightning makes the air around it five times hotter than the sun, causing it to burst out with a big shockwave" ([10:07]). The subsequent cooling of the air leads to additional sounds and rumbles.

Calculating the Distance of Lightning A practical demonstration follows, where Lizzy Lightning and Thor help listeners determine how far away lightning has struck. By counting the seconds between seeing lightning and hearing thunder, one can calculate the distance:

• Formula: Divide the number of seconds by five to get the distance in miles ([15:33]).
• For example, a five-second count equals one mile away.
• In the metric system, dividing by three estimates the distance in kilometers ([15:33]).

Understanding the Speed of Sound and Light The delay between lightning and thunder is explained by the fact that light travels much faster than sound ([10:45]). If no thunder is heard after seeing lightning, it indicates that the lightning strike occurred over 25 miles away ([16:12]).

Making Thunderstorms Fun and Less Scary To alleviate fear, Lizzy Lightning and the Trusty Narrator suggest imagining thunderstorms as epic battles between mythological characters like Thor and fantastical creatures ([14:03]-[14:20]). This creative approach mirrors ancient storytelling and makes thunderstorms more engaging and less intimidating for children.

Conclusion The episode wraps up by reinforcing the blend of science and storytelling that makes "Who Smarted?" a beloved educational podcast. Listeners are encouraged to view thunderstorms through both scientific understanding and imaginative narratives, fostering a love for learning and curiosity about the natural world.

Notable Quotes:

• Thor ([00:37]): "And I bring the thunder."
• Trusty Narrator ([01:23]): "What do you think? Does Thor cause thunderstorms?"
• Lizzy Lightning ([05:02]): "And since most of the earth is covered in water, moisture isn't hard to find."
• Lizzy Lightning ([08:24]): "So negative and positive charges really like each other. They're always trying to connect."
• Lizzy Lightning ([10:07]): "Within a fraction of a second, lightning makes the air around it five times hotter than the sun, causing it to burst out with a big shockwave."

Final Thoughts "Who Smarted?" successfully demystifies the complexities of thunderstorms by merging humor, myth, and science. By the end of the episode, young listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of thunderstorm dynamics, the science behind thunder and lightning, and practical methods to gauge the distance of lightning strikes—all while enjoying an entertaining and engaging narrative.

Transcript

[Trusty Narrator]

Psst. Hear that, smarty pants? You know what that sound means? Why, of course. It means a thunderstorm is coming. Maybe not right outside your window, but somewhere in the world. Can you guess approximately how many storms are happening right now? Is it 50, 100, or 500 more? The answer is approximately 2, 2000 thunderstorms are happening at any given time every year. The Earth is hit by an estimated 16 million thunderstorms.

[Thor]

And I bring the thunder.

[Trusty Narrator]

Why, it's Thor. What are you doing here?

[Thor]

Battling inside this storm. There's no rest for the mighty Thor, the God of thunder.

[Trusty Narrator]

No kidding. You're in like 10 movies a year. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

[Thor]

I'm not that Thor. I'm the mythological God. A character worshipped hundreds of years ago by Vikings. Plus, we're not trying to get sued by Marvel here.

[Trusty Narrator]

I see.

[Thor]

But I still carry a hammer.

[Trusty Narrator]

Uh huh.

[Thor]

And I'm just as good looking.

[Trusty Narrator]

Right, but do you actually cause thunderstorms?

[Thor]

Of course.

[Trusty Narrator]

Smartypants. What do you think? Does Thor cause thunderstorms? And if not, how do thunderstorms form? And what exactly is thunder? And how can you tell how far away lightning is striking? Join me and our legally safe, non Marvel affiliated Thor as we take another big whiff of science on who smarted? Who's smarted? Who's smart? Is it you? Is it me? Is it science or history? Listen up, everyone. We make smarting lots of fun.

[Thor]

But who's smart?

[Lizzy Lightning]

And.

[Trusty Narrator]

Kids, you have a lot of questions.

[Thor]

Is a crocodile a dinosaur?

[Lizzy Lightning]

Why do people vote? How does your food turn into your poop? But why?

[Trusty Narrator]

A podcast for curious kids has answers.

[Lizzy Lightning]

I'm Jane Lindholm.

[Trusty Narrator]

Join me as we dig deep into everything from science to history, nature, emotions, and sometimes even the weird. Why are jellyfishes made of jelly? Or are they made out of jelly? Find.

[Lizzy Lightning]

But why?

[Trusty Narrator]

Wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, smarty pants. You're probably very familiar with the sound of thunder. My dog sure is, which is why she's hiding under the table. It's okay, Luna. It's just a sound effect. I better put on her thunder shirt. There, feel better?

[Thor]

Good.

[Trusty Narrator]

Where were we? Smarty pants? Ah, I remember. Have you ever heard thunder and wondered, what exactly is that sound I'm hearing?

[Thor]

Tis me, Thor, riding a goat drawn chariot across the sky.

[Trusty Narrator]

Yeah, I'm not so sure about that. Smartypants, what do you think creates thunder? Is it A, Thor's hammer? B, Thor's axe? Or C, a Rapid expansion of heated air triggered by the mutual attraction of positive and negative charges.

[Thor]

While I sometimes wield an axe, my favorite weapon is still my trusty hammer. When the giants attack Asgard, Sea, Thor.

[Trusty Narrator]

The answer is C. C?

[Thor]

What do you mean, C?

[Lizzy Lightning]

He means I bring the thunder.

[Thor]

Holy smokes. It looks like someone is trying to impersonate Thor. Maybe I should get my lawyers.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Excuse me? If anything, you're impersonating me.

[Thor]

Me trying to be you? That's funny. I don't get it.

[Lizzy Lightning]

While you come from a made up story meant to explain how thunder works, I'm the one that actually makes thunder happen. The name's Lizzy. Lizzy Lightning.

[Trusty Narrator]

Wow, what a strange turn of events. Also, Lizzy's right, smarty pants. Lightning is actually the sole creator of.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Thunder, which you'll find during a lightning storm or thunderstorm. Same difference. The important thing is, for this kind of storm to happen, you need three basic ingredients.

[Thor]

Let's see. Courage, a magical belt called Meegingjord, and of course, my hammer, Mjolnir.

[Trusty Narrator]

Um, not quite. Smartypants, what is the first ingredient needed to create thunder? Here's a hint. That's right. Water or moisture.

[Lizzy Lightning]

And since most of the earth is covered in water, moisture isn't hard to find. The sun's heat evaporates it and it hangs around in the air, especially on sticky, humid days. And speaking of heat, the second ingredient is instability.

[Thor]

You mean like when I trip over an evil serpent I'm fighting?

[Lizzy Lightning]

No, I mean when you have warm, moist air near the ground and cool, dry air above it. That's why you tend to see more thunderstorms on hot, humid days, especially during the summer. And then comes the third ingredient. Lift.

[Thor]

Aha. Like lifting my hammer.

[Lizzy Lightning]

I mean something that causes the warm air below to rise up or lift. The sun's heat on the Earth's surface can push air up. So can an upward slope like a hill or mountain. The lift can also be caused by the collision of two different types of air at an invisible mass moving boundary called a front. You may have heard a weather forecast mention a front.

[Trusty Narrator]

This is Chet Nickerson with a special weather report. There's a big cold front coming in, so look out for lots of storms. You're gonna want to stay indoors, preferably with some cookies.

[Lizzy Lightning]

In all these cases, the water in the warm air lifts up and then cools down. Do you know what that forms?

[Thor]

Water giants?

[Trusty Narrator]

No, smarty pants. Any guesses? What does water form in the sky? That's right. Clouds.

[Thor]

That's what I Meant giant clouds.

[Lizzy Lightning]

As the moisture rises higher, it makes the clouds taller.

[Trusty Narrator]

Smarty pants, how high up do you think a thunderstorm cloud can go? Is it A, 10 miles high, B, 6 miles high, or C, 2 miles high?

[Lizzy Lightning]

The answer is A, a thundercloud can reach up to 10 miles, or 16 kilometers, into the air. That's nearly twice the height of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. At this point, there is a lot of stuff going on inside those clouds.

[Thor]

Like ferocious battles?

[Lizzy Lightning]

More like ferocious winds. Up and down. Water droplets rising up into the colder air freeze and then come down, hitting other droplets going up. Through a complicated process, these collisions create a slew of charged particles ready to zap.

[Trusty Narrator]

Smarty pants, you may remember from our electricity episode, there are two types of charged particles, positive and negative.

[Thor]

Are you positive?

[Lizzy Lightning]

If you mean am I certain, then yes, I'm positive. But in the cloud, I'm negatively charged. In thunderclouds, positive charges rise to the top, while negative charges sit at the bottom. Eventually, there's a buildup of negative charges and they gotta find someplace to go.

[Thor]

Like when you really have to pee?

[Lizzy Lightning]

Uh, actually, yeah, kinda like that.

[Trusty Narrator]

As you were saying.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Yes. So negative and positive charges really like each other. They're always trying to connect. And when they do, that's when you see me. Lightning. You've got all these negative charges sitting at the bottom of a cloud, fighting hard to connect with positive charges. Sometimes they find a positive part of a cloud, and that's when you see lightning shoot through the sky. But do you know what else has positive charges?

[Thor]

My hammer.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Sure. But that's not all, smartypants.

[Trusty Narrator]

Besides clouds, what else can create the positive charges that the negative charges they're looking for? Did you say the Earth? Great job. If you got that, smarty pants.

[Lizzy Lightning]

It's actually everything on Earth, including people. When the strong negative charges in the thundercloud move over the ground, any positive charges move up, which is why anything on Earth can be struck by lightning. Usually, these negative charges find the shortest path to connect, which is why tall objects like trees, skyscrapers, and mountains get struck the most. But really, these charges can meet up anywhere. And when they do, a whole lot of energy is released.

[Trusty Narrator]

Whoa, Lizzy, that's some noise. Thanks, smarty pants. Why is lightning so loud? What do you think is happening?

[Thor]

She's trying to drown me out and steal my thunder.

[Lizzy Lightning]

No, believe it or not, it's because something super powerful is happening. It's because the sky is exploding. Whoa. Within a fraction of a second, lightning makes the air around it five times hotter than the sun, causing it to burst out with a big shockwave. But after the lightning strikes, the air quickly cools and contracts, creating more noise and rumbles. Sounds you associate with thunder.

[Trusty Narrator]

But wait, if this all happens in an instant, why does lightning seem to strike seconds before the thunder?

[Lizzy Lightning]

That's because light travels through the air a million times faster than sound. So if you're far away from lightning, you'll see it before you hear it. But have you ever wondered just how far away a lightning strike is?

[Trusty Narrator]

Absolutely, smarty pants. Get ready to learn how to figure out how far away lightning is right after this quick break. Hey, smartypants. Trusty here. What if your watch could call your parents, text your friends, play games, and still help you ace the school day? Say hi to Pinwheel, the smartwatch that's built just for kids. Whether you're walking to school, riding your bike, or or hanging out with friends, Pinwheel lets you stay in touch with the people that you care about and blocks everyone else. No junk, no spam, just the good stuff. You can pick your favorite color band, play fun games, and even chat with a super cool kid. Safe AI if your grownups turn it on. And when it's time to focus, your watch knows. Thanks to custom schedules that your parents set right now, you can get awesome deals on watches for back to school, plus free shipping and returns. Check it out at pinwheel.com smarted that's P-I N W H E-E-L.com smarted and gear up with the coolest watch made just for you. Hi, smarty pants. It's the trusty narrator, the host of who Smarted. First, a big welcome to all our new listeners. Welcome to the Smarty family. Here's a nice five star review from one of you. Hi, Trusty. This is my new favorite podcast. I listen in the car with my sister and even before bed. I'm telling all my friends, too. Sean P. Ohio. Thanks, Sean. And that's a great idea. So, smarty fam, would you mind doing me a favor? Tell one friend or another parent or an educator today about who'ssmarted? Because the only thing that's better than listening to whosmarted is listening to who Smarted with a friend. Now back to who Smarted. So, smarty pants, you feel the rain, you hear the thunder. But how can you tell if the lightning you saw is far away or up close? Um, Thor, what are you doing?

[Thor]

Ah, bringing the thunder.

[Trusty Narrator]

But we just spent the whole episode explaining how Lizzy lightning Causes thunder.

[Thor]

Hey, I could still pretend, right? I mean, there's lots of great stories about me fighting peace and whatnot. Can we just imagine that's happening during a lightning storm? It's way more fun than imagining charged particles.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Thor has a point. While thunderstorms are normally not a big deal, especially if you're safe inside, they can be a little scary.

[Trusty Narrator]

Especially if you're a doggie. It's okay, Luna.

[Lizzy Lightning]

So thinking of them as an epic battle between mythological gods and monsters can make them less scary and more fun. It's what the ancient people did. So every time you hear thunder, imagine it's Thor straight striking down an enemy.

[Thor]

Eat my hammer.

[Trusty Narrator]

That's cool. But how can you tell how far away lightning is striking?

[Lizzy Lightning]

I was just getting to that. Thor, you can help us demonstrate.

[Thor]

By the power of Asgard, I shall.

[Lizzy Lightning]

I'm going to need your help too, narrator.

[Trusty Narrator]

Sure thing.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Okay, smarty pants, in just a moment, I'll do my lightning scream. Pretend that's the moment in the storm when you see the lightning. At that point, Trusty, I want you to start counting off seconds.

[Trusty Narrator]

Got it?

[Lizzy Lightning]

And then, Thor, at some point, you make a thunder sound.

[Thor]

Aha. So I will be bringing the thunder.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Sure, smartypants. When you hear Thor make a thunder sound, call out the second the narrator has counted up to. Okay, is everybody ready? Here we go.

[Trusty Narrator]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

[Thor]

Ba boom, ba boom.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Smarty pants. What number did the thunder sound at?

[Trusty Narrator]

I got five. Is that what you got, Thor?

[Thor]

Oh, I wasn't counting.

[Lizzy Lightning]

Five is good. So, because sound travels at a speed of about one fifth of a mile per second, take whatever number you count up to and divide it by five. In this case, five divided by five equals one. So the lightning in this experiment struck one mile away. If you use the metric System Divide by 3 To get kilometers, you can't divide 5 by 3 easily, but 6 divided by 3 is 2. So you can just estimate the lightning was a little under 2km away.

[Trusty Narrator]

Wow, that's cool. But what if you don't hear anything after seeing the lightning?

[Lizzy Lightning]

If you see lightning but don't hear it, that just means it's far away. While light can travel great distances, the sound of thunder only travels about 25 miles. And even at that point, you can barely hear it. So if you don't hear a sound, you can just assume the lightning was over 25 miles away.

[Thor]

I heard that.

[Trusty Narrator]

Actually, that was my stomach. Anyone want a cookie? Chet Dickerson will be right over. Trusty. A thunderous shout out to Mark in New York you told us you love how we explain complicated things in a fun and simple way. Well, that's music to our ears. Mark, thanks so much for smarting with us this episode. Thunderstorms was written by Dave Beaudry and voiced by Chris Okawa, Kieran o', Connor, Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert. Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hahn, who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios. Our associate producer is Max Thunderbolt Kamasky. The theme song is by Brian Stormy Suarez with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis, who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert. This has been an Atomic Entertainment production too. Smart and.