Micro-Season: “Thunder Raises Its Voice” (2023)

We have entered the micro-season of “Thunder Raises its Voice ” This is the third micro-season of the mini-season of Spring Equinox. All the micro-seasons within Spring Equinox are:

• The Sparrow Builds Her Nest (Mar 20 -Mar 24)
• The First Cherry Blossoms (Mar 25 – Mar 29)
• Thunder Raises its Voice (Mar 30 – Apr 03)

These seasons were established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai and are specific to Japan. However, just because the calendar focuses on Japan doesn’t mean it isn’t applicable to others.  No matter where you live you can use these seasons as a starting point for your personal exploration into the world around you. 

To celebrate this season, we will learn about thunderstorms and read some seasonal haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Reichhold.  

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Spring Thunderstorms

As the seasons change, the conditions needed for thunderstorms to develop become more common.  Heat, moisture, atmospheric instability, and lift are the four main atmospheric conditions needed for thunderstorms.  Below are brief descriptions of how each condition contributes to the creation of a thunderstorm.

• Heat: As we transition into spring, the increase in sunlight warms the earth and the atmosphere. The warming of the earth creates warmer air masses that are near the earth’s surface. The warming temperatures also encourage evaporation. Evaporation is necessary to get moisture into the air. 

• Moisture: Thunderstorms require moisture. The moisture in the air comes from water vapor, which is a product of evaporation.  As the water vapor rises into the sky, it cools and condenses.  The condensed water begins to create clouds.

• Atmospheric instability: When warm air is under cold air it is considered unstable.  It is called “unstable” because the warmer air is less dense than the colder air and it wants to rise above it. However, in order for the warm and cold air masses to shift their atmospheric orientation they need a little nudge.  The nudge needed to move the warm air upwards is called “lift”.

• Lift: Thunderstorms require a lifting mechanism to force the warm air to rise. This lift can be caused by weather fronts, mountains, or other terrain features.  When the warm air begins to rise, the moisture in the air cools and condenses into clouds.  The cloud formation continues to grow upward and creates what is known as a towering cumulus cloud. The growth of this cloud is supported by the continuous rising of the warm air. These towering cumulus clouds have the potential to be 10 miles tall.⁽⁴⁾ When towering cumulus clouds are being formed there usually isn’t any rain.  However, there may be lightning.

Lightning And Thunder

Lightning is created when there is a sudden electrostatic discharge in the atmosphere. The discharge can happen between a cloud and the earth, or between two charged regions in the atmosphere. This discharge is the way that the atmosphere neutralizes itself. ^(5,6)

Lightning heats the air around it to temperatures of up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (27760 degrees Celsius), which causes the air to rapidly expand.⁽⁷⁾ This expansion creates a shock wave that travels through the air.  The shock wave can be loud and abrupt or it could sound like a low rumble. When we hear this shock wave, we call it thunder. 

A Diagram Of A Thunderstorm

The three-dimensional diagram below was created by the Vermont State Colleges and shared by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center. The diagram is an “example of how a cold airmass advances – lifting the warm and moist, less dense airmass over it – resulting in thunderstorms. The “Cb, Cs, Ac, and Ci” denote specific types of clouds. The black circles with black lines extending from with hatch marks are examples of surface weather observations. In this diagram, they show the temperature of the air, and the direction and speed the wind is coming from.”⁽⁹⁾

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Seasonal Haiku

This season focuses on the changes in the weather instead of the plants and the animals. Interestingly, the World Kigo Database states that “thunder” is a summer kigo, and “lighting” is an autumn kigo.⁽⁸⁾  There is an exception with “spring thunder” which is, not surprisingly, a spring kigo.  

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words as selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, atmospheric conditions like wind, rain, and storms fall under the “Heavens” section.  Some examples of spring kigo in this section include Spring clouds, East wind, Spring rain, Last frost, Shining wind, Spring gusts, and End of snow. 

With this in mind, let’s read some seasonal haiku about spring weather.

Basho

laziness
helped out of bed
by spring rain 
(translated by Jane Reichhold)

spring rain— 
blowing back and forth like straw coats,
 river willows 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

Buson

An old garden-- 
With rocks half buried 
Spring rain. 
(translated by William R. Nelson & Takafumi Saito)

Spring rain-- 
The belly of a frog 
Net yet wet.
(translated by William R. Nelson & Takafumi Saito)

A spring rain-- 
Next to me in the carriage 
Sweet murmuring. 
(translated by William R. Nelson & Takafumi Saito)

Issa

half of it
is flitting snowflakes...
spring rain
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

spring rain--
one Buddhist sermon
two haiku
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Jane Reichhold 

snow mixing
my breath
with spring

Haiku Invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu that references the spring weather. 

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your own page and link back to this post. I can’t wait to read what you write!  

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Resources:

1. Highs and Lows/High and Low Air Flow: Iowa State University
2. “Thunder”; Wikipedia
3. “Thunderstorms”: Wikipedia
4. “What Causes a Thunderstorm?” SciJinks NOAA
5. “Understanding Lightning: Thunderstorm Electrification”; NOAA
6. “Lightning” Wikipedia
7. “Understanding Lightning: Thunder”; NOAA
8. “Thunder and Lightning”; World Kigo Database
9. “Thunderstorms”; Living with Weather, MRCC
10. Yamamoto, Kenkichi. “The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words”. Translated by Kris Young Kondo and William J. Higginson. Haiku Foundation

 Basho’s haiku was retrieved from Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations. Buson’s haiku was retrieved from “Haiku of Yosa Buson Organized by Rōmaji, in alphabetical order; translated into English, French, Spanish” Terebess Asia Online (TAO). Issa’s haiku was retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s HaikuGuy.com.  Jane Reichhold’s Haiku retrieved from A Dictionary of Haiku