Thunder and lightning are always together because they are actually two different manifestations of a single phenomenon. The noise of thunder is the sound that lightning makes when it strikes. Light travels at a speed of 299,792,458 meters/second, much faster than sound, at a speed of 340.29 meters/second at sea level.
Thunder and lightning occur at roughly the same time although you see the flash of lightning before you hear the thunder. This is because light travels much faster than sound. Why is lightning seen first before thunderstorm?
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.
One of the next things we wondered was: does thunder always come with lightning storms?
Yes, there will always be thunder after you see lightning. It all depends on how close you are to the lightning strike. Thunder is the result of lightning heating up the air to as hot as 50,000 degrees. This sudden heating of the air causes it to rapidly expand and vibrate the air around it.
What causes lightning and Thunder?
In a fraction of a second, lightning heats the air around it to incredible temperatures —as hot as 54,000 °F (30,000 °C). That’s five times hotter than the surface of the Sun! The heated air expands explosively, creating a shockwave as the surrounding air is rapidly compressed. The air then contracts rapidly as it cools.
Thunder from nearby lightning sounds like an abrupt crack, while distant thunder rolls and rumbles as the sound waves are altered by topography. If you ever hear thunder before lightning, it was caused by another lightning discharge which happened a few seconds earlier.
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.
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.
Thunder is a direct reaction to lightning, but because sound travels slower than light, we see the lightning before we hear the thunder., and technically no. Thunder is the sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning that produces rapid expansion of the air within and surrounding the path of a lightning strike.
That is because light travels much faster than sound waves. We can estimate the distance of the lightning by counting how many seconds it takes until we hear the thunder. It takes approximately 5 seconds for the sound to travel 1 mile. If the thunder follows the lightning almost instantly, you know the lightning is too close for comfort!
This begs the question “Is it possible to hear thunder without seeing Lightning?”
Yes it is possible to hear the thunder and not see the lightning during bright daylight. The thunder cloud may be close enough to hear the thunder but if the lightning is inside the cloud and with the bright surrounding sunlight you may not see the lightning.
How does Lightning travel from cloud to ground?
Often lightning occurs between clouds or inside a cloud. But the lightning we usually care about most is the lightning that goes from clouds to ground—because that’s us! As the storm moves over the ground, the strong negative charge in the cloud attracts positive charges in the ground. These positive charges move up into.
How can you tell how close lightning is to you?
We can estimate the distance of the lightning by counting how many seconds it takes until we hear the thunder. It takes approximately 5 seconds for the sound to travel 1 mile. If the thunder follows the lightning almost instantly, you know the lightning is too close for comfort ! What does lightning look like from space?