On July 17, 2020 I awakened at four in the morning to the sound of rain falling on the tin roof outside our window. After a very dry summer when hay crops were only yielding thirty to fifty per cent of normal yield; this was . . .
the best sound that could fall on a farmer’s ear. July 17 was also my dad’s birthday and thoughts of a very early science lesson in my life came back with the distant sound of thunder and that soft early morning rain.
While some folks used to complain of “another rainy day”, or some kids ran to their room and hid under the sheets when the sound of thunder shook their life, dad used to sit on the front porch and enjoy this “gift” from above.
Dad always encouraged me to sit on the porch with him and enjoy the rain, lightning, and thunder. He also taught me to count in seconds,the time between seeing lightning and hearing the thunder which was the noise of the lightning explosion.
Each second was approximately equivalent to one mile. So, eight seconds between the lightning flash and hearing the thunder meant that the storm was about eight miles away. If the next flash took ten seconds to arrive as thunder, then the storm was moving away.
If the next flash only took five seconds to arrive as thunder, then the storm was getting closer. We have all noticed that a nice rain seems to make grass, the garden, and fields of everything grow better than irrigation water.
Dad only went to school a few years but explained to me that lightning fixed some of the atmosphere’s seventy eight per cent nitrogen, into a form that was water soluble and came to earth in the rain drops.
When a thunder storm is close; you can smell the nitrogen dioxide in the air.
A couple good rains and thunder storms can turn a parched soil and dead brown lawns into a beautiful dark green again. Dad also warned me to get out of the lake or river at the first sign of a storm because lightning often strikes anything sticking up in the water.
This was brought home to me when a round bale of hay that was in a low water filled depression in a hay field was struck by lightning and burned to ashes in the middle of a thunder storm.
Dad also warned against taking refuge under a tree when a storm was close. Many cows have been electrocuted under a big tree when lightning struck the tree.
Insurance usually paid the farmer for the cows that died, but when you are dead; money cannot bring the cows or you back.
It’s important to explain to the next generation about the benefits of rain, lightning and what thunder means. It is also very important to warn our family about the severe damage that lightning can do. Our grandparents usually had a rain barrel to collect rain from the roof. Grandmother’s garden always looked nice too. Some of the tap water in many cities contains chlorine and sometimes other chemicals that accumulate in the soil and retard rather than help lawns and gardens.
Acid in the air left by air and ground travel as well as that produced by some industrial plants can also fall as “acid rain”, but let’s hope that our environment departments are working to reduce that too.
Whether we are trying to reduce this persistent COVID-19 virus or know why a thunder storm is beneficial; it don’t help to bury your head under the quilts!
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon
on land that has been in his family
or generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
