Super Thunder!

We don't really have a weather forum here, so I guess I'll just put this one here.

Last night we had some thunderstorms roll through. Wasn't too bad around us, but I guess it got pretty bad further east. When I got home from work I could see these really nasty looking clouds off to the east. It had rained some, but the storms had passed. As happens periodically during unsettled weather out here, the storms circled around and came back west. Again, nothing major, but we got some pretty heavy rains out of Round #2. A little bit of thunder and lightning and then things gradually moved on to the east, this time seemingly for good. The weather calmed down and it was a pretty nice evening.

Much later around midnight my wife and I were sound asleep in bed when all of a sudden there was this incredible clap of thunder. Just a single clap, and it sounded like an atomic warhead going off right next to the house! I've never heard thunder this loud in all my life! It was so loud I thought it was going to break the windows in the house! Both dogs dove on the bed (well, one tried to dive under the bed, bonked its head, then jumped up on the bed). Both dogs were completely freaked out. Outside, I could hear all of our cattle bolting across the pastures the loafing sheds for cover. It was just a single boom, out of the blue, and then everything was calm.

I've never heard anything like that before. And when I say it was "LOUD", this doesn't even begin to cover it! Both the wife unit and I instantly woke up and commented ... "WOW!! HOLY CRAP!! It was like a huge multi-hour thunderstorm released all of its thunder in a single concentrated BOOM!

It was dark out so I couldn't really see anything unusual outside, but I got to wondering if there is some sort of a weather phenomenon like a 'super-cell' thunderstorm which is just a rogue cloud which just cuts loose with all its fury in a single instance?

In retrospect, it really was pretty cool, but it sure scared the hell out of the animals (and startled the crap out of us).

Anyone ever experience anything like this?

Anyone know the science behind it?

I mean, spring thunderstorms on the plains are a pretty common occurrence, but never experienced anything quite like that one.

I would bet something got struck near you.

Years ago, my wife and I were on the back porch watching a storm. Lightning hit the neighbor's satellite dish less than 5 feet from where I was standing. We could feel the charge, and it left our ears ringing. We went inside.

a reply to: theatreboy

Could be. I'll have a look around once it gets light outside.

I've had a similar experience once, up on a mountaintop in WY. I was on horseback at the time too. Made the hair on my arms and neck stand up with the ion column charge. You could smell it too, the ozone. Freaked my horse completely out too. Took a good hour to get him settled down.

Couldn't smell anything last night though, and I didn't see a flash. There may have been one, but I didn't see it.

Nothing like being awakened by the house rattling, your eardrums throbbing, and the smell of ozone, in the wee hours of the morning.

Florida, tagged the lightning capitol of the US, has given me enough electrical illumination and auditory distress to last me a lifetime.

That also includes a NDE in a K-Mart parking lot in the middle of a storm.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

There was a time when we lived in an apartment. We had our windows open and there was a spring storm. As storms are wont to do in these parts, it was producing decent cloud to ground lightning. The storm wasn't severe, just a spring pop-up with that cloud to ground. So I was watching out the window.

All of a sudden, one of those bolts hits the parking lot right outside the window!

The clap was hugely loud and the metal windowframe in the window was ringing afterward. I suspect I'm glad I wasn't touching it. As it was, the electricity from the strike traveled up our cable line and fried both our computers through the ethernet cards.

And this morning, we've had a slow rain with those slow, deep, rolling, house-shaking booms all morning.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Oh I know that sound, it's is really hard to describe.

One afternoon I was watching the lightning then suddenly a bolt struck the other side of the road, before I could shout 'holy sh-' BANG!!! The best way to describe it is it sounded like a sniper rifle on steroids.

I whooped after it-i love thunderstorms-but I still got a migraine and sore eyes that lasted for hours.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I too know what you are talking about. Down here in Tornado Alley Texas we get some pretty hairy storms. I used to be a big fan of powerful storms until 2 years ago. I had just finished building a table for a party and had a couple of buddies help me move it into the garage before it started raining. As we are entering the garage a bolt comes down and hit my neighbors house 10 feet from where we were directly where I was looking. Everything went yellow. House catches fire, fries every TV and computer in his house, and put a huge hole in his roof. He and his wife stayed with me for about a month while repairs were done to their house. 2 weeks later after they get back into their house another storm rolls in. This time a bit later in the evening. Laying in bed just about to fall asleep when BOOM...(the exact same loud crack that you described) even with my eyes close I could see the light! Next thing i hear is what sounded like a cable running along my roof and the power went out. This bolt had hit 10 feet away from where my neighbors house was it but this time it was my house. When my house was hit it cause a tree to get hit and catch fire at the same time, it then snapped off a huge branch that fell on the power line to my house cause the power line and meter box to be ripped from my house. I was without power for two weeks. Plus the power company told me it was my problem and not theirs. I've been getting better about it but since then storms have kept me on edge. Needless to say I am not a fan of storms anymore!

I have heard those constant booming thunder storms many times in my life around here, the rumbling goes on for a long time when a front goes bye to the side of you. I like when the lightning shoots back and forth in the clouds, it makes for a great light show. I was reading how that lightning shooting within the clouds works, but figured, I didn't really want to know, so I made no memory of it so it would not come up in a conversation later and bore people. Sometimes the wow factor is the important thing.

I once had an experience where the building I was living in was having the roof rebuilt and at the end of the workday the Company would bring their Propane bottles down off the roof and store them in a big Metal Dumpster set right alongside the building.....one night there was a big thunderstorm...a bolt of lightening hit the dumpster and ignited the propane...it was like a bomb...twas on the other side of my building and I was jolted a foot off my bed.....I had been 1/2 asleep listening to the huge thunder....and was tuned in when the bigbang happened....lol...it felt like Superthunder.