The reason we see a flash of lightning before hearing thunder is because light travels faster than sound. The speed of light depends on what it is moving through – being slow in gases, fast in liquids, and even quicker in solids. In the air, sound travels at around 332 metres per second.
This of course begs the query “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.
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.
Lightning comes before thunder in a way, the speed of light, the lightning comes before the speed of sound, the thunder. Once lightning occurs, the thunder will ALWAYS follow. There is a sound barrier that covers the earth. When the lightning breaks it, we see it faster than 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.
Why is sometimes lighting faster then the Thunder?
The lightning comes before thunder because light is as fast as a flash and sound takes afyew seconds. Thanked the writer., and blurted this. 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.