does lightning always come with thunder storms?

Answer 1

Yes! The thunder you hear is the result of lightning occuring somewhere else.

Answer 2

YES it does if you see lightning but do not here thunder the lightning is to far away to here the thunder. Flash lightning is lightning that is a lightning that is off in the distance

See this link to learn more about lightning
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightning/thunder.htm

then check out these safety links
LIGHTNING SAFETY LINKS

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/lightning.html

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/more.htm

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/overview.htm

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/severewx/safety.php

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightning/ltg_faq.shtml

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/survivors.htm




Regardless of whether lightning is positive or negative, thunder is produced the same way. Thunder is the acoustic shock wave resulting from the extreme heat generated by a lightning flash. Lightning can be as hot as 54,000°F (30,000°C), a temperature that is five times the surface of the sun! When lightning occurs, it heats the air surrounding its channel to that same incredible temperature in a fraction of a second.

Like all gases, when air molecules are heated, they expand. The faster they are heated, the faster their rate of expansion. But when air is heated to 54,000°F in a fraction of a second, a phenomenon known as "explosive expansion" occurs. This is where air expands so rapidly that it compresses the air in front of it, forming a shock wave similar to a sonic boom. Exploding fireworks produce a similar result.




When lightning strikes a shock wave is generated at each point along the path of the lightning bolt. (The above illustrations show only four points.)
With nearby lightning strikes the thunder will sound like a loud bang, crack or snap and its duration will be very short.
As the shock wave propagates away from the strike center, it stretches, diminishes, and becomes elongated. Then other shock waves from more distance locations arrive at the listener.
At large distances from the center, the shock wave (thunder) can be many miles across. To the listener, the combination of shock waves gives thunder the continuous rumble we hear.
Learning Lesson: Determining distance to a thunderstorm

In addition, the temperature of the atmosphere affects the thunder sound you hear as well as how far away you can hear it. Sound waves move faster in warm air than they do in cool air. Typically, the air temperature decreases with height. When this occurs, thunder will normally have an audible range up to 10 miles (16 km).

However, when the air temperature increases with height, called an inversion, sound waves are refracted (bent back toward the earth) as they move due to their faster motion in the warmer air. Normally, only the direct sound of thunder is heard. But refraction can add some additional sound, effectively amplifying the thunder and making it sound louder.

This is more common in the winter as thunderstorms develop in the warm air above a cooler surface air mass. If the lightning in these "elevated thunderstorms" remains above the inversion, then most of the thunder sound also remains above the inversion. However, much of the sound waves from cloud-to-ground strikes remain below the inversion giving thunder a much louder impact.

Answer 3

Lightning is caused by an electrical imbalance in the atmosphere. When the positive charge in the atmosphere becomes greater than the negative, the positive charge will go to ground through the path of least resistance. When the positive charge makes contact with the ground, lightning occurs. That is why lightning goes from the ground up. When lightning occurs, it is in the form of heat energy, burning everything in it's path. The sound we know as thunder is the rush of atmospheric gasses replacing the gasses that were burned by the lightning. Therefore any time there is lightning, there will be thunder. If the lightning is far enough away, you may not hear the thunder, but it is there.

Answer 4

peep this ****!

Thunder is the sound of the interaction created by large amounts of oppositely charged particles. Think of it let them bumpin in to each other in the club like ***** what?! So that interaction always creates photon activity, no matter what. If you hear thunder, there was lightning somewhere, but you may not always see it. Not all of the photon activity is within the human eye's visible range of detection, therefore, you will always hear thunder with lightning, but you may not always see lightning when you hear thunder. 9 times out of 10, by the time you hear the thunder, the lightning has finished it's arc. Here's a zinger for ya! Lightning actually travels from the earth to the sky.

Answer 5

I'm sorry, but this whole thing, the question and the answers, strikes me as tantamount to asking "who's buried in Grant's tomb?"

By definition a storm that creates thunder is a thunder storm...that's tautological. To say otherwise, would be like denying that a rain storm creates rain. Check this out:

"A transient, sometimes violent storm of thunder and lightning, often accompanied by rain and sometimes hail." [See source.]

Also by definition, the sound created by lightning is called thunder. Check this out:

"The crashing or booming sound produced by rapidly expanding air along the path of the electrical discharge of lightning. " [See source.]

Any other use of the word "thunder" is in the context of "thunder like sound." Its a sound that sounds like thunder, but it is not thunder. When a glacier cleaves off an iceberg, for example, it sounds like thunder.

Answer 6

Lightning comes when negative jumpes onto positive and thats also when the thunder storm comes.

Answer 7

Lightning doesn't always come from thunderstorms, but it is the most common.

You'll see lightning in heavy snowstorms, volcano erruptions, sandstorms. Basically, if there a lot of atoms being charged, there's always the chance of the formation of lightning.

Other types of lighting:
Ball Lightning
This phenomena does not look like "lightning," instead, it appears as a mysterious glowing sphere which drifts through the air. It is typically the size of a grapefruit, but sometimes appears as small as a pea, or as large as a bus. It usually lasts only a few seconds, but sometimes persists much longer. Various colors of "BL" have been seen, sometimes it changes colors, and sometimes it has internal structure. Most researchers agree that it is real, yet its nature is still highly controversial, and no sensible theories yet exist to explain it.

Red Sprites:
Sprites are massive but weak luminous flashes that appear directly above an active thunderstorm. They occur at the same time as cloud-to-ground or intracloud lightning strokes. The structure of a sprite can be small single or multiple vertically elongated spots, spots with faint extrusions above and below or bright groupings. Sprites can extend to altitudes of about 95 km and are most often red. The sprites are rarely seen singly. They usually occur in clusters of two or more.

Blue Jets:
Blue jets are a second phenomena that appear above thunderstorms. These are narrow cones which are ejected from the electrically active core regions of a thunderstorm. Blue jets are typically emitted at speeds of approximately 100 km/s (Mach 300). They then fan out and disappear at altitudes of 40-50 km.

it's a little wordy, but I hope this helps.

Answer 8

yes. thunder does not happen without lightning. and if the storm consists with the sound of thunder then 100% chance that lightning made that cosmic boom we call thunder.

Answer 9

Every single time you hear thunder, lightning has created it.

Answer 10

NO! Wiz and Ash have no clue what they're talking about.

Lightening DOES NOT come with thunder. Tunder is the result of hot and cool air colliding and fisghting for space. Lightening is a large flash of static created by hot, humid air. They are noramlly seen together, but they really have nothing in common.