Thunderstorms.

[Zerovirus]

Has anyone ever considered how ironic thunderstorms are?

Really. It's like, some random day, Mother Nature or God or Eloh or Slaanesh or something, in a fit of vitriolic frustration, decided to punish the planet by inventing this awesome concept called 'electricity' and make it so that it is easily transmitted through water.

And then he or she or it arbitrarily decides to make a natural phenomenon made completely out of electricity called 'lightning', and program it to only happen when it rains.

WTH.

I mean, who would come up with such a monstrous torture? I know, let's cover half an acre in water AND THEN ELECTROCUTE IT! In fact, let's do it several times! Because this is a lightning storm!

I mean, if thunderstorms didn't exist, people would be shocked (excuse my pun) that such a horrendous natural occurence might exist on any planet. And it happens regularly!

...Maybe it's just my annoyance at two consecutive weeks of rain and lightning.

[Pentarctagon]

I wish I had that weather where I live...its been ~month of over 90 degrees + humid

[HomerJ]

Good to see that somebody sees our world as the wonderful miracle that it is. Although the physics of lightning is rather boring, the result speaks for itself...

Greetz
HomerJ

[Velensk]

I don't consider thunder storms all that ironic. I consider rainbows considerably more ironic but I'm not inclined to conplain.

Though it's funny you mention it because just recently there was a notable lightning strike near where I live. The destroyed structure was a 62 foot tall statcue of Jesus which the people nearby call 'touchdown Jesus' because of his stance which resembled an (american) football referee declaring a score. I heard awhile back that it was paid for with illigitately earned money but I never saw any evidence to back it up. Would put its destruction in quite an amusing light if it was true.

[Dixie]

I personnally love thunderstorm! I dunno, there's something about the power and violence, and at the same time it sets a kind of tranquillity and peace... I dunno, it's soothing. Plus, it has a tendency to kick out hot and humid (wet? how do you say in english?) weather, which I abor. I'd rather have snow all year long than hot and humid. At least, when it's cold, you can put on another shirt or turn up the heat a bit. When it's too hot, you can just mope around. But anyway, that's another matter entirely.

So huh... Yeah, thunderstorms are great. I'd suggest listening to Eric Satie's Gymnopedie no3 during one, but it can never beat listening to that piece during the first snow in november. That's just... priceless.

[Moribund]

Frankly, it's a relief that we only get lightning during rain- imagine all the forest fires and junk that would happen if there wasn't any rain to put it out right away (not saying that lightning doesn't cause forest fires, I'm just saying there would be more).

[Crushmaster]

I imagine many people in the world would like to be in your situation.
God bless,
Crushmaster.

[Iris]

From Wikipedia (and if you need citations, the many chemistry teachers I've studied with will count for our purposes):

Pure water containing no ions is an excellent insulator, but not even "deionized" water is completely free of ions. Water undergoes auto-ionization in the liquid state. Further, because water is such a good solvent, it almost always has some solute dissolved in it, most frequently a salt. If water has even a tiny amount of such an impurity, then it can conduct electricity readily, as impurities such as salt separate into free ions in aqueous solution by which an electric current can flow.
[...]
The low electrical conductivity of water increases significantly upon solvation of a small amount of ionic material, such as hydrogen chloride or any salt. Thus the risks of electrocution are much greater in water with impurities.

Food for thought. The question ensues: is rain made of pure water? What about acid rain, which is frequently associated to industrialized countries and volcanic ecosystems? What about the little solar radiation — besides visible light — that trespasses the atmosphere? Does it have any ionizing effects on atmospheric water? Etc.



EDIT: FWIW, I love rainy days until it gets to the point it starts cutting or damaging power lines and stations — often it's associated with strong winds — or when really impressive thunderstorms occur. Fortunately, the latter are very rare where I live, and most of the time it doesn't get much far from a few thunders with no/little visible lightning, but boy is it awesomely frightening when it happens. A nearby (~2-3 km) high-voltage power line was struck by lightning some years ago and it left us without electric power for a couple of days.

Since I usually do stuff with computers, you can see why I don't feel very comfortable with black-outs. We also need electricity in this particular rural area to get drinking water.

[thespaceinvader]

Very, very little rain is pure enough to be de-ionised, especially not when it's hit the ground

I like thunderstorms and rain, myself, particularly when I'm dressed for them. One of these days, when I'm feeling rich, I need to invest in a properly good wax jacket for just that purpose...

[Jetrel]

Frankly, it's a relief that we only get lightning during rain- imagine all the forest fires and junk that would happen if there wasn't any rain to put it out right away (not saying that lightning doesn't cause forest fires, I'm just saying there would be more).

Actually, earth gets lighting without rain quite frequently. Depends on where you are - it's apparently rather common in desert areas.

[Major]

Thunder storms are awesome! (excuse my childish glee.)
In Hazy View up in between Cape Town and Johannesburg, we used to get the most amazing thunder and lightning, it was inevitable that within the first five minutes the power would go out, and because it is so hot there we would just sit on the stoep (veranda,deck) and watch them. (there was a roof incase you were wondering.) And these storms would go on for hours on end, it was awesome!

[HomerJ]

Food for thought. The question ensues: is rain made of pure water? What about acid rain, which is frequently associated to industrialized countries and volcanic ecosystems? What about the little solar radiation — besides visible light — that trespasses the atmosphere? Does it have any ionizing effects on atmospheric water? Etc.

Great, another opportunity to use this one
There is no pure de-ionized water in a non ultra clean laboratory environment since it always takes up CO2 from the air which forms protons and hydrogen carbonate anions. Acid rain also comes from gaseous compounds like SO2 which can be oxidized to SO3 which forms sulphuric acid with water.

The pH-value of pure de-ionized water is 7 by definition, under atmospheric conditions it is lowered to approximately 5.5 (pH 1: highly acidic, pH 7: neutral, pH 14: highly basic). Acid rain has an even lower pH.

I am not aware that irradiation of water has any effect besides raise in temperature (and destruction of microorganisms if UV is used). It has however a huge effect on the rich chemistry of atmospheric gases, which would be a lecture of its own.


Greetz
HomerJ

[Midnight_Carnival]

Aaah, threads like these reveal more to me about human nature than about nature nature.

Raise a topic like this and you will find people mostly divided into two groups: those who seek to expalin all the magic away and those who only want to sit back and watch the show.

...find the guy who can watch the show in near religious awe and still want to understand it without diminishing the wonder, in fact understanding it makes it more wonderful, that's your Archmage. A lot of people want to pretend that's them right there, but actually they are really just either bowing and groveling to something they can't control and feel that they can't understand. Others say that they find it even more wonderful when they undrstand it properly, but actually they are afraid and hiding under their beds, listening to silly stories somebody told them about charged atmospheric particles so that they don't feel so scared.

As for Zero, he just scares me, he finds it all ironic...

but me, I'm still watching the people watching the storm, overwhelming forces that I can't hope to control just are, understanding and acceptance are not necesarry thought they could be fun, but it's the people who are interesting to me.

[Iris]

Great, another opportunity to use this one
There is no pure de-ionized water in a non ultra clean laboratory environment since it always takes up CO2 from the air which forms protons and hydrogen carbonate anions. Acid rain also comes from gaseous compounds like SO2 which can be oxidized to SO3 which forms sulphuric acid with water.

The pH-value of pure de-ionized water is 7 by definition, under atmospheric conditions it is lowered to approximately 5.5 (pH 1: highly acidic, pH 7: neutral, pH 14: highly basic). Acid rain has an even lower pH.

I am not aware that irradiation of water has any effect besides raise in temperature (and destruction of microorganisms if UV is used). It has however a huge effect on the rich chemistry of atmospheric gases, which would be a lecture of its own.

Thanks, HomerJ, now I know!

Although these subjects do fascinate me, I tend to be too lazy* to look up information on them on my own. Now that I actually think of it, the clouds are clearly ionized or there'd be no lightning in the first place (IIRC).

I like thunderstorms and rain, myself, particularly when I'm dressed for them.

I don't think anyone likes to be out in a rainy day without proper clothing. I was caught off-guard the other day because it was so cold I didn't expect it to actually rain at all. Needless to say, after walking 1.5 kilometers to my house under copious, cold rain...I was not amused.

* (Yes, shame on me.)

[pauxlo]

I like thunderstorms and rain, myself, particularly when I'm dressed for them.

I don't think anyone likes to be out in a rainy day without proper clothing.

If it's warm enough, better without any clothing than with improper clothing