it rocks...

it's Sunday morning and we're having a THUNDERSTORM !!! I love it! When I was a little, tiny goth, my mother used to tell me that thunder was the sound of giants rolling potatoes... these days I know it's caused by the collision of cold and warm air fronts, causing upwardly spiraling air currents to carry the rain and ice upwards, causing them to pick up a positive charge, which, in turn, causes the clouds and surrounding air to pick up the same positive charge, until it reaches a point in space and time where it needs to discharge, either to another cloud with a negative charge, or, more likely, to the earth or some earthbound object laden with negative ions, causing lightning, which is nothing more than a big, big spark. When that spark happens, it heats up the air surrounding it to over ten thousand degrees, causing it to blow outward at over the speed of sound, causing a mini sonic boom, which is the thunder you hear. The rumbling effect is that sound wave bouncing off the clouds, hills and other objects.
Whew. That took a lot out of me. And knowing all of that sort of takes the wonder out of thunder, doesn't it? It's much more fun to believe it really is the sound of giants rolling potatoes.
what say you..?
image above is "Giant" by N.C. Wyeth. If you click on the picture, you will go to the Brandywine Museum site, where you can buy a copy of the print!