Why don't you hear thunder with heat lightning?

Question

they always say that with theres ALWAYS lightning if theres thunder and ALWAYS thunder with lightning

Answer 1

You generally will not hear thunder if a storm is 3 or more miles away. Light travels a lot faster than sound does. So if you are experiencing heat lightning, which is nothing more than the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon from distant thunderstorms, you probably aren't going to hear the thunder associated with that storm because of the distance of the storm.

Answer 2

You often can.
Heat lightning often occurs at considerable distances from your point of view. While light travels unimpeded, the sound dissapates over the many miles, so that it may be difficult to hear. Heat lightning is simply the flashes of lightning on the horizon from distant thunderstorms. Differences in air pressure and temperature may also divert the sound waves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_lightning#Heat_lightning_or_summer_lightning

Answer 3

Heat lightning has nothing to do with the run in of clouds full of precipitation, which is how rain is released. Heat lightning are combustion's of released energy.

Answer 4

Sound waves move much slower that light waves, that is why you see lightning than you hear thunder. Ans since lightning is electricity from the ionisphere it is moveing very fast which results in the lightning and thunder.