Lightning and thunder

_Elsa_

“I remember when we had heavy rain last week with thunder and lightning,” says Sophia. “Autumn was so frightened and I didn’t know how to help her overcome her fear of severe weather.” 

“Why do we have thunder and what is lightning?” asks Autumn.

Rancid chuckles to himself because he remembers hearing how people used to tell their children that when they heard thunder it was God bowling. He feels that Autumn needs to know the truth so he explains to her that if she sees lightning in the sky it’s just a bright flash of electricity produced by a thunderstorm. He is not sure if his explanation will be simple enough for Autumn to understand so he looks on Google for an easy explanation. 

‘Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice (frozen raindrops) bump into each other as they move around in the air. All of those collisions create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The positive charges or protons form at the top of the cloud and the negative charges or electrons form at the bottom of the cloud. Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The grounds electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, or single trees. The charge coming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and - zap - lightning strikes!’ (Source) 

Rachel wants to get back to Autumn’s fear of severe weather so she turns to Sophia and tells her that she remembers reading something online about a weather radio.  

“I’ve seen them in the stores and they aren’t too expensive,” Rachel says. “Have Autumn help you set it up. The radio will alert you of approaching bad weather. It will alert you of severe thunderstorms as well as natural disasters such as tornados or hurricanes. That might help her get over that fear.” 

Sophia likes that suggestion and will definitely have to check it out. 

“Mommy, what are natural disasters?” asks Autumn. 

That’s a loaded question! Sophia doesn’t know what to say. Rancid explains to Autumn ……………….. 

‘Natural disasters are violent events that are outside the control of humans. They are caused by the forces of nature and may result in loss of life, injury, and damage to property. There are many types of natural disaster, including avalanche, drought, earthquake, flooding, hurricane, tornado, tsunami, volcanic eruption, and wildfire.’ (Source) 

Let’s continue - Autumn now asks what a drought is

Start at the beginning – Rachel and Rancid answer some why Questions about natural disasters

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Start at the beginning of the main story – Why … But WHY?

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