Lightning can be seen before thunder is heard as light travels faster than sound. The noise of thunder is caused by the rapid expansion of heating the air. You can normally hear thunder up to 6 miles (10km) away from the lightning flash.
Does lightning come before thunder?
The lightning comes before thunder because light is as fast as a flash and sound takes afyew seconds. Anonymous answered Because light travels faster than sound, the second lightning passes the sound barrier there is a sonic boom, or thunder, therefore proving that thunder is a factor of lightning.
This begs the inquiry “Why is it that lightning always comes before Thunder?”
The favorite answer is although thunder and lightning occur at the same time, the lightning is seen before the thunder is heard because light travels at a much faster speed than sound. Sound waves can also bounce off molecules in the air, causing it to travel in different directions.
Another frequent query is “Why do you always see lightning first before we hear thunder?”.
The reason we almost always see the lightning before hearing the thunder is because light travels much faster than sound. Thunder and lightning happen in the same place at about the same time. In fact, the lightning produces the thunder. When lightning occurs, the nearby air becomes very hot and expands quickly, causing an explosion.
Though it is theoretically possible to hear thunder and then see lightning, lightning actually causes thunder, so it has to come first. Thunder is the noise that’s caused by the sound of the rapid expansion of air that gets suddenly heated by a bolt of lightning.
Is it possible to have lightning but no Thunder?
No, it is not possible to have lightning without thunder, according to NOAA. Thunder is a direct result of lightning. Thunder is a direct result of lightning. If you see lightning but don’t hear thunder, it is because the thunder is too far away.
When we were writing we ran into the question “Are Thunders possible without lightning?”.
So no, it is not possible for true thunder (natural thunder and not just artificial noises) to exist without lightning. Thunder is a direct reaction to lightning, but because sound travels slower than light, we see the lightning before we hear the thunder.
Thunder is a direct result of lightning. If you see lightning but don’t hear thunder, it is because the thunder is too far away. Sometimes, people refer to this as heat lightning because it most often occurs in the summer, but it is no different from regular lighting.
What happens when a person is struck by lightning?
With a power of 300 kilovolts, lightning can heat the air up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This combination of power and heat can cause serious damage to the human body. Being struck by lightning may lead to burns, rupturing of the eardrum, eye damage, cardiac arrest, and respiratory arrest.