Weather Music

We had a couple of thunderstorms pass through here this afternoon. I wasn't looking out the window to see the lightning, but did hear the thunder -- the "weather music." In the interests of full disclosure, I told my fellow radio announcer over at WNAK, Paula Degnan, that I would credit her for first use of that term.

Perhaps if we described thunder that way to our children, rather than "angels bowling in heaven," they would not be so scared. "Listen to the music of the storm," we might say, "listen to the weather music. These are the kettle drums of the lightning."

During a storm, I like to tune an AM radio between stations and listen to the lightning static. That's what static is on the radio: the sound lightning makes in the radio spectrum … the soundtrack to an electrical storm. You watch the lightning, even from a distance, and listen to it at the same time on the radio. As it gets closer, you have this light and radio performance, along with the kettledrum weather music.

It's an evening at Mother Nature's concert hall!