Well, I've experienced this in the past mostly near hilly areas. I don't
think anyone really knew, but my feeling is in the static sort of leaking
thought the rain. If you put up an aerial when you have static charged
rain, you can clearly hear the noise as it discharges, and indeed sometimes
feel the static in the air just beforehand.
As you say, most of the other explanations are to do with wind effects,
which I certainly do not accept as that would vary greatly as wind in these
storms is often gusty or cyclonic but short lived.
Was there any hail associated with this storm, as the sound of lumps of ice
whizzing through the air on updraghts has been know to cause eerie sounds in
American storms just before Tornados occur.
Not wnting to worry you of course!

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
. uk...
From around 15:00 through to 21:00 yesterday, we had a bit of a storm. I
recorded 60mm of rain came down during the course of it and several
properties were flooded at the lower extremes of the village.

What was really weird, was the noise from the thunder. Aside from the
usual crashes, there was a continuous noise, which sounded rather like a
jet engine roar, which lasted for tens of minutes at a time. I have never
heard the likes of it before and just wondered what mechanism would allow
the noise from the thunder to continue for such a long time and such a
steady noise?

It sounded so unlike thunder, I went out several times, to see if it might
be wind noise or some other locally generated noise. It wasn't because
several others reported the same noise, in the path of the same storm.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk