A Peculiar Thunderclap

Abstract

POSSIBLY some one of your readers may be able to throw light upon the peculiarity of a thunderclap which occurred here during a severe thunderstorm on July 27. This parish lies in a hollow of the hills, and almost always escapes close contact with thunderclouds. On the date mentioned a peal of extraordinary suddenness resembling the crashing burst of a big gun followed instantaneously a vivid flash at my point of observation. Two or three trees were afterwards observed to have been struck, and a paling rail near some wire was split into pieces and thrown some distance. Now the peculiarity is this: that very similar experiences were noted at places more than a mile distant and in various directions. The same crash following immediately on the lightning was noted by quite a number of independent witnesses. A mile to the east of this dwelling the lightning was seen to run down a wire fixed to the top of a flagstaff. About a mile to the north a farmer driving home was alarmed to see the lightning flash along the wire paling by the roadside and split one post at least and cast the fragments on the road.