Mountain thunder, lightning mean summer has arrived
By Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle
The thunder rumbled across the mountains, a low, steady roll that carried for miles.
On Saturday evening, as I cooked dinner at our fire pit, I gazed above a distant ridge, where the thunder seemed to originate. About a minute later, a lightning bolt fired across the dark sky.
“One, two three,” I counted, and at “nine,” another deep thunder roll resonated across the mountains.
The time from flash to bang, or lightning to thunder, represents 5 seconds per mile. At 9 seconds, the lightning was nearly 2 miles away.