What is the relationship between thunder and lightning?

Question

Why is there a deafening noise whenever there is a flash of lightning?

Answer 1

the light is considered the lightning the sound is considered thunder. The light comes from the charged particles coming up from the groudn to the sky. The thunder comes from the sound of all that energy moving those particles and them hitting other particles.

Answer 2

I'm not 100% sure on this cause its been so long since i read about it. I think its a sonic boom created when the lightning displaces the air faster than the speed of sound, just like a jet airplane hitting mach 1. That is why if you count from a single flash of lighting until you hear thunder then stop- remember the number and do it again on another flash/strike until thunder. If its taking longer each time until you hear thunder it means the storm is moving away, a shorter count means it would not be a good time to be hitting golf balls while standing on the roof of your house.

Answer 3

No matter what time of year, when it storms, lightning, a bolt of energy, also generates heat as it flashes through the sky, parting cooler particles of air, when those cool particles come back together and meet the lightning warmed air, thunder in produced, the more energy in the lightning, the more heat, thus the louder the thunder.

Answer 4

When there is lightning it is usually very far away, lightning makes a sound. Sound does not travel as fast as light. Therefore you may see the lightning a few seconds before you hear the thunder. Thunder = Sound of lightning

Answer 5

Thunder is heoretically ties to lightning. When the electric spark that is lightning forms, it creates a supersonic burst of air which travels as thunder.

Answer 6

The lightning bolt, or discharge, imparts a great deal of energy to a great number of molecules along its path. These atoms then collide with nearby atoms, propagating a very loud sound wave. The loud "crack" you hear from a near stike is from a wavefront actually travelling faster that the normal speed of sound. This creates a vacuum, and molecules reflecting from the wave front and returning to their "previous" positions (with many back-and-forth collisions) produces the "rumble".

Answer 7

Within the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC), there is a group of researchers, mostly scientists and engineers, who collectively form the GHCC Lightning Team. As part of their research activities, the members of this team have been investigating the causes and effects of lightning as well as analyzing a wide variety of atmospheric measurements related to thunderstorms.

One of the primary objectives of this group is to determine the relationship between the electrical characteristics of storms and precipitation, convection, and severe weather. In order to achieve this objective, the GHCC Lightning Team has designed, constructed and deployed numerous types of ground based, airborne, and space based sensors used to detect lightning and characterize the electrical behavior of thunderstorms. The data collected by the GHCC Lightning Team is routinely shared with scientists around the globe, resulting in numerous advancements in the field of Atmospheric Science.




Thunderstorms are one of the most common and most noticeable weather products of our atmosphere. They form worldwide, spit out deadly lightning, band together to form hurricanes, and can spin up the world's fastest winds inside tornadoes. The links below take you to information about the nature, structure and detailed studies of thunderstorms

Answer 8

They are the two faces of a coin...one is the audio (thunder) and the other is the video (lightning)

Answer 9

When lighting falls from the clouds it is so hot the air explodes and it makes thunder.

Answer 10

Energy is displayed in the form of heat and light ( explosion), light energy is faster than sound, so light is seen first, followed by the Report !