Country diary: Who's to say there's nothing supernatural about a storm? | Paul Evans

The Marches, Shropshire: The thunder over the hill is spectacular, reverberating in everything below itThunder and cuckoos on Stapeley Hill. Half the sky is blue and bright over hill country of the west. For a moment, a fierce light reflects back from the quartzite tor of the Devil's Chair on the Stiperstones ridge. The other half of the sky, below white peaks of cumulus bergs slashed with mineral colours thickening to black with a wet mane that licks the hill's edge towards the Severn Vale, is shuddering with thunder. A low frequency, not as loud as peals or claps, but a rumbling through the bones.We have known since the last century that thunder is caused by lightning. Within clouds, friction between ice particles stimulates lightning, whose plasma reaches 10,000C and impacts the cooler air at supersonic speed, causing explosive shockwaves. There must be a swarm of lightning enclosed by these clouds to cause such constant rumbling. Maybe it's only visible from weather satellites, but its sound and electrifying energy is shakingly eerie. The storm is a living thing, moving slowly and ominously across the sky. Continue reading...