How far away can you hear lightning at night?

[vchimpanzee]

If you're hearing an AM station 500 miles away and you can hear lightning, is that lightning necessarily near you?

Can lightning from 500 miles away mess up your receptrion on a local station?

 

[pqgeorge]

If you're hearing an AM station 500 miles away and you can hear lightning, is that lightning necessarily near you?

Can lightning from 500 miles away mess up your receptrion on a local station?

Locally, lightning will override your local AM station for only about about 10-20 miles. Actually hearing the static crashes on a portable radio, 500 miles is the norm at night. During the day, 50 to 60 miles will do it. Take into account that lightning is very broadband in nature. As a result, it's not a very efficient mode of operation. Imagine though if lightning were narrow band in nature, you're talking SUPERPOWER baby! If you thought WLW at 500,000 watts was the BIG ONE (back in the late 1930's), it would pale to what lightning could do in a narrow band mode. Ah, but alas, mother nature does not operate that way.

 

[davideduardo]

If you're hearing an AM station 500 miles away and you can hear lightning, is that lightning necessarily near you?

Can lightning from 500 miles away mess up your receptrion on a local station?

Anything that puts a strong signal on the AM band can mess up a reception of a station at comparable or lower equivalent power. For examply, if you were listening to KORL 650 in Honolulu in Ohio, common in the early 60's, lightening of severe strength anywhere on the path could disturb the listening.

 

[nd2023]

It depends. On a low frequency like 530, you can hear lightning static all the time in the summer from any storm within 800 miles. On 1710, 100 miles at night is about the limit. If you have a powerful AM station within a couple miles, you may not hear any lightning static on that station. A clear channel station has 50000 watts in a 10 khz band, and lightning is a few million watts throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum, which is like 100-1000 watts per AM channel.

 

[dxer720]

Also remember that AM antennas in portable radios & loop antennas are bi-directional. Most AM/FM whip car antennas are not.

If you're listening to a station to the east on a portable, you would also be picking up static from storms to the west.

In a car, static in any direction could interfere with any AM station you're trying to hear.

 

[boiseengineer]

Go here http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/inspire.html and listen to lightning from around the world!

 

[vchimpanzee]

I had an interesting experience during the day a few years ago.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on a 5000-watt station at 600 AM (I wasn't aware it was directional in the daytime, but someone on this site said it was. It was clear enough 45 miles to the south but I was really starting to have lightning problems. I switched to a 50,000-watt non-directional station at 1110 AM 40 miles away. Same thing. I changed to a 1000-watt non-directional station at 1010 AM 25 miles away. A good, strong signal, and no lightning.

 

[nd2023]

I had an interesting experience during the day a few years ago.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on a 5000-watt station at 600 AM (I wasn't aware it was directional in the daytime, but someone on this site said it was. It was clear enough 45 miles to the south but I was really starting to have lightning problems. I switched to a 50,000-watt non-directional station at 1110 AM 40 miles away. Same thing. I changed to a 1000-watt non-directional station at 1010 AM 25 miles away. A good, strong signal, and no lightning.

Was there a thunderstorm within 50 miles that day? The static may not have been caused by lightning.