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Seligor's Castle, fun for all the children of the world.
Blogs
Wed, 06 Jan 2010
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 Thunderstorms, Rainbows, Lightning, Hailstones, Mare's Tails, Woolpack and Mackerel, all in the SKY.
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A
THUNDERSTORM
 OK! I can
hear you all saying what has a thunderstorm got to
do with Rainbows. Well listen, and I'll tell you a
small story from a small while
ago;Down by the
sea are the old fishermen, mending their nets or
lobster-pots beside the upturned boats on the
shore; up near the cottage on the road to the hills
is the shepherd, whistling for his faithful dog.
Those are the people to ask whether it is likely to
be a good day for a sail or a picnic on the moor.
They do not tap barometers ; they look at the sky
and read the weather news
there.It is not
easy to learn to forecast the weather in this way;
but some of the signs are plainer than others. A
thunderstorm sometimes comes as a complete surprise
; at other times the sky gives hints of what is to
come along before the storm
breaks. It seems
that all clouds are made up of countless droplets
of water, each with a speck of dust in its heart,
and all are formed in the same way from the cooled
water-vapour brought up from the earth by warm air
currents ; but clouds are very strange and come in
many different shapes and sizes, from wispy "Mare's
tails " and the little flecks of a "Mackerel sky "
as spotted as the fish's skin - to the billowy
white " Wool-packs " and the still heavier banks of
dark
storm-clouds.
Very often when thunder is coming the "Wool-pack
clouds  with their
rounded tops grow darker and darker, though their
silver linings may still be seen for a while, and
the ragged grey rain clouds gather together in dark
masses. Then a strange orange glow spreads
across the skies, and it feels like the air around
you is still and heavy.
Thunderstorms are most common in hot
weather, when the atmosphere becomes so sticky and
stuffy that it makes people tired and miserable
with headaches. At home in Groes where I used to
live we used to be tormented by tiny black flies
that we used to call thunder bugs, and by the time
the storm actually arrived the window sills used to
be covered in the tiny bugs, the size of a pin head
if I remember rightly. The strange thing was, when
the thunder came and the storm was over, they were
all gone, vanished into what was now thin air!
When I was
very small and we lived in Bontnewydd, which was
deep in a valley, with high reaches on either
side, when the thunder and lightning came it
would travel up and down the valley, which was an
amazing sight.
Just before the storm
breaks there is often a short but heavy rain fall,
and the wind would get up and turn cold, this was
then followed by another heavy rain often with
hail-stones mixed with the massive drops. Then the
lightning begins to flash across the sky, not
always the same kind of lightning.
Electric ...
moment fork lightning bolt struck erupting
volcano
Sometimes
huge forks cracked from the sky like dragons
tongues licking their way down to the valley, then
after the flash would come the thunder. We used to
count between the lightning and thunder to see how
close it was. I quite liked the fork lightning but
not the sheet lightning, though my Mum said this
one was the safest. As the wind moved the clouds
through the valley so the storm would get closer,
then there would be an almighty flash of light
followed by an huge crack of thunder, so loud that
the whole cottage would shake with the noise. Dad
 said it was Thor throwing
his hammer around in the Heavens and Zeus was
replying by throwing bolts of lightning at him. I
never had the heart to tell him that they were both
from a different type of mythology.
But that was long ago, and I can
honestly say that apart from when I lived abroad, I
haven't seen a good thunderstorm since the
eighties. Lightning is a giant electrical spark,
most of the flashes pass from cloud to cloud, this
is the sheet lightning and we don't often hear the
thunder when that one is playing with the
clouds. Where as the fork lightning is more
violent and it sends a rush of electricity from
place to place, it is this that causes the
thunder, for thunder is the noise made as the
heated air expands at the touch of the
lightning. Of course
the lightning in the sky is a very long way
off, and as light travels nearly a million times as
fast as sound, the flash is seen from the earth a
moment or two before the sound of the thunder is
heard, although both occur in the clouds at the
same time.  There are some
great stores of electricity in the clouds, and it
is when these are upset in various ways that the
thunder comes to visit us. Even when the weather
seems calm, the air high up is constantly moving,
sometimes it moves in strange swirls and whirls,
sometimes in cold streams that flow in under masses
of warmer air and cool the water-vapour in them
till rain drops begin to form and fall. So we have
sheet lightning that plays above the clouds jumping
from one to the other, then we have the dragon
flashes that streak down to the earth without care
or leave where they land. Then we have the dragon
tongues that occasionally lick the earth, not
always but sometimes they can start fires,
cause serious damage to homes and buildings. Even
people can be killed by these flashes if they get
caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just
remember to keep away from trees and high places,
best still try to be some-where snug and warm.
 Well the storm passes, usually
very quickly, the rain ceases ; no more lightning
is seen, and there is not even a mutter of thunder
among the hills. As the clouds move gently
apart a lovely light is shed from beyond them. This
often causes a rainbow to appear in the sky, for
the fine raindrops still falling from some of the
clouds catch the sunlight and break it up into its
different colours : red, orange, yellow, green,
blue. indigo, violet. Sometimes there is a second,
fainter rainbow, and in it the bands of colour are
in the opposite direction, starting wiith violet,
indigo through to
red. The
clearest rainbows are seen when the sun is low in
the sky, either in the east in the morning or in
the west in the afternoon. The nearest the sun is
to the horizon , the more nearly complete is the
bow or arc. Rainbows, like thunderstorms are more
common in the summer than in the winter, and
usually after a heavy shower or thunderstorm than a
long steady downpour from a dull-grey
sky. But you can
see a rainbow in many places, when you next take a
trip on a boat or ferry. Look at the spray cast up
by the prow, the rainbow is in every drop of water.
One of my most favourite rainbows can be seen in
the dew drops on a spring morning. Go for a walk to
the woods, along a country path, in a country park,
but it must be whilst the dew drops are hanging
from the leaves. If you are really lucky and you
move your eyes so slowly once you get the first
colour, you can see all the colours in the one tiny
dew drop, the sun shines through the watery droplet
as it rises. All the colours of the rainbow intense
colour, shimmering, glinting like precious gems, so
wonderful. Oh gosh Seligor does get carried away
when she describes these beautiful refraction of
colours. Oh goodness I have just thought of another
way to see a rainbow, BUBBLES! of course, so
simple, get mum to buy you a pot of bubbles and
blow them towards the sunlight. Hundreds of little
rainbows popping all around you.
Brilliant, Fantastic. 
So long as you have the early
morning sun and the dew, you have a
RAINBOW.
After the storm everything is peaceful
and beautiful, shining drops run off the trees and
leave them very fresh and green, the drooping
flowers raise their heads again, and one after
another the birds begin to sing.
The gist for
this little tale came from Maribel Edwin, I have
just added a few thoughts of my own, for I do so
love the weather we have in Wales..
Posted 18:40
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