Lightning zaps Tower of the Americas, sending vibrating waves of thunder, video shows
Storms raged across the South Central Texas area last week, painting the sky with blinding lightning strikes that brought with it bone-chilling snaps of thunder.
Photojournalist Nick Wagner captured a video provided below of several lightning strikes hitting the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio last Friday, according to Storyful.
Wagner said the tower “did it’s job” on Twitter, and when asked how he got the shots, he said, “a lot of patience and forethought, but most importantly, an abundance of luck!”
“Last night’s ‘bow echo’ thunderstorm was the perfect opportunity for lightning photos,” he wrote on Twitter.
In the video, the loud cracks of thunder can be heard after lighting strikes a pose in the sky.
The Tower of the Americas is a 750-foot tower in downtown San Antonio that has restaurants and a 4D theater, according to Tour Texas.
Thunder happens “when lightning passes through the air,” quickly heating it and causing it to expand, according to the National Weather Service. The surrounding air can reach up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is five times hotter than the sun’s surface, the agency said.
After the flash, the air cools and contracts just as quickly as it expanded, creating what “we hear as thunder.”
It takes about 5 seconds for the sound of thunder to travel a mile after lightning has struck, the NWS says. That’s why you hear it after you see it.
Next time there’s a storm, you can calculate the distance between you and the lightning by counting how many seconds it takes between the flash of lighting and the sound of thunder.
Take that number and divide by 5. This will give you the distance in miles, the NWS says.
Just make sure you’re indoors when calculating.
