Rain, rain, don't necessarily go away, but give us a break!

[cactuswatcher]

We had another big storm in my area in the middle of the night. It thundered and rained moderately to heavily for two hours from around 11:30 to 1:30. I may have had as much three inches of rain, in other words more rain in one night than all summer last year. It was not a cloud burst like I had on the night of the 2nd of August, but it was certainly worrisome, certainly a lot of water for the desert, and it gave me clean up to do this morning.

Many parts of Tucson are hilly. When it rains heavily practically any dip in the landscape can create a roaring flash flood across the road. We have had "swift water rescues" several times a week this summer across the area from cars that get suddenly swept off the road. Driving in storms is not a good idea here.

All the thunder scared the cat pretty badly, he snuggled up to me very insistently through the whole storm. The nervous wagging of his tail pounded on the bed and kept me from dozing off the whole time. (You can pet a dog in a situation like that till it calms down, but petting a wound-up cat can be tricky and you need know when to back off.)

Comments

[atpo_onm]

Being an audio guy, I've often wondered what specific aspects of storm noises are what bothers animals like dogs and cats to such a degree. I do know that dogs can hear frequencies well above what we can hear, even in our youth, but is it the very low / infrasonic frequencies of the thunder, or is it the sharp burst of high frequencies that would be produced by the lightning that precedes the thunder.

I know that "crack", when it's close, often even makes me jump.

Heh... speaking of hearing higher frequencies, last week I happened to be testing some speakers I had repaired, running what we call a "sweep test" on then, using an audio sine wave generator, and I was pleased to find I can still hear up to 8 KHz, almost to 10. That's pretty darn good for a nearly 68 year old man!

Of course, when I was a kid, I could hear these traffic light sensors that were popular at the time, ones that used an ultrasonic beam to bounce off cars and trigger a light change at an intersection. My sister could hear them too, but my mom and dad were baffled at our complaining about how almost painful they were to listen to. Dunno the exact frequencies they used, but I'd guess it was maybe 22 or 24 KHz. I bet dogs really hated those things!

[cactuswatcher]

We've had a lot of thunder this summer mostly in the nearby mountains. The louder booms bothered him, though I could calm him down. That night was the first time we had the nearby cracks-and-booms since we moved from Phoenix, not many but enough that he was spooked through the whole storm. The dog we had when I was a kid knew what was coming when he saw the very distant flashes and would start scratching on the door to be let in long before there were any booms I could hear. Of course living on a hill surrounded by tallish trees, we'd get cracks-and-booms during most storms.

I don't think we had those ultrasonic sensors, just timers where I lived. The only thing I've noticed about my hearing is that I can still distinctly hear people speaking even very softly as with the TV volume set very low, but have a harder time understanding what they are saying! (Watching movies I prefer to turn on the captions rather than turn up the volume.) Maybe I'm just sensitive about hearing the TV in the next house over!

[atpo_onm]

The only thing I've noticed about my hearing is that I can still distinctly hear people speaking even very softly as with the TV volume set very low, but have a harder time understanding what they are saying!

Yes, I am starting to have the same issue just a bit. That's because sensitivity to volume and frequency response range are separate issues hearing-wise. Human speech extends farther into the upper frequencies than many people realize, and when the ability to hear those diminishes, as it almost inevitably does as we age, words often get harder to understand. One reason modern hearing aids are better is that they no longer just boost overall volume, they can contour frequency response, boosting the higher frequencies in particular. Some people don't need volume as much as frequency tailoring.

Some TV sets have an equalizer (multiple tone controls) built into the audio block, accessible from a setup menu. Carefully adding some boost to the frequencies above 1 or 2 KHz can be helpful sometimes. "Some" is the operative factor here-- too much boost and sounds can become shill and irritating.