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Thunder Lightning facts

While investigating facts about Thunder Lightning Song and Thunder Lightning Map, I found out little known, but curios details like:

William Rankin who survived ejecting from his plane and the failure of his parachute, then spent 40 minutes falling through a several-miles-deep cumulonimbus cloud which featured lightning strikes, a hailstorm and what he described as the "feeling" of thunder.

how thunder lightning is formed?

When Tesla moved to Colorado to work on artificial lightning, thunder from one experiment was heard 15 miles away, people saw sparks jumping from their feet to the ground, butterflies were swirling in circles with blue halos around their wings and the whole town was left in the dark.

What is thunder and lightning?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what comes first thunder or lightning. Here are 26 of the best facts about Thunder Lightning Distance and Thunder Lightning Sounds I managed to collect.

what causes thunder and lightning?

  1. Lightning can heat the surrounding air to as hot as 50,000 °F, three time hotter than the surface of the sun. As the super heated air cools, it produces a particular vacuum. The rapid contraction and expansion of this air is what causes thunder.

  2. Santa's reindeer, Donner and Blitzen (German for thunder and lightning) were originally Dunder and Blixem (Dutch for the same)

  3. As soon as thunder is heard it is best to find safe shelter. Thunderstorms can begin very quickly and if you are able to hear the thunder then you are close enough to be struck by the storm's lightning.

  4. The second stage of a thunderstorm, called the mature stage, occurs when the rising warm air reaches warmer air and it spreads out into a "cap". This creates frozen water droplets that fall to the earth, melting along the way - unless the updraft is very strong which creates hail. It is during this stage that lightning and thunder and strong winds and rain occur.

  5. The sound of thunder is caused by lightning (which is hotter than the surface of the sun) temporarily superheating the air so that the air moves so fast it breaks the sound barrier. Thunder is a "sonic boom".

  6. AC/DC's album "Thunderstruck" was inspired by a moment when lightning struck an airplane that Angus was aboard. After the stewardess explained to Angus that the plane had been stuck by lightning, he replied "No, we were struck by thunder, because it boomed."

  7. Donner and Blitzen, two of Santa's reindeer, are actually named Dunder and Blixem, named so for the Dutch words for "thunder" and "lightning", respectively.

  8. It is possible to thunder and lightning while snowing. This is referred to as thundersnow.

  9. The sound of thunder is made when lightning's heat flash causes the air to expand rapidly, and then shrink rapidly. This violent air disturbance causes the sound of thunder.

  10. Heat lightning is sometimes called silent lightning due to the fact that it originates from a thunderstorm so far away that the thunder is not heard. Usually appearing in summer, people called it heat lightning despite not having to have anything to do with heat.

thunder lightning facts
What makes thunder and lightning?

Why does thunder and lightning happen?

You can easily fact check why is there lightning but no thunder by examining the linked well-known sources.

Brontophobia is an irrational fear of thunder and lightning - not a fear of brontosauruses.

Heat Lightning is commonly used to describe lightning from a distant thunderstorm just too far away to see the actual cloud-to-ground flash or to hear the accompanying thunder - source

Although more common in warm climates, winter cumulonimbus clouds can result in blizzards, which can also include lightning, thunder, and a lot of snow.

Scientists at the University of Florida - Gainsville are just beginning to study exactly how thunder is created. (Vid includes live shot of lightning in plasma state, too)

A boy was struck by lightning at the foot of a roller coaster called "Zeus' Thunder". - source

Dua when thunder and lightning?

Two of Santa's Reindeer names derive from Germanic words for Thunder and Lightning

How thunder lightning occurs?

Santa's reindeer "Donder and Blizten" are Americanizations of the Dutch words for "Thunder and Lightning"

After seeing a lightning flash, every 5 seconds before you hear thunder, the lightning is 1 mile away (for every 5 seconds.)

Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela receives nearly 1 million lightning & thunder strikes over 260 days a year! The phenomenon called "Everlasting Storm" rages 10 hours a day and is also known as "Lighthouse of Maracaibo".

Lightning is defined in "strokes". Multiple strokes in a small area is called a "flash", which gives us the flickering of lightning and sound of rolling thunder. "Strike" is not a scientific term but generally refers to cloud-to-ground lightning.

A rare phenomenon called Ball Lightning, balls of lightning formed during thunder storm that can travel in any direction, last for a few seconds, and can explode on impact.

What to do when it's thunder and lightning?

"heat lighting," believed to be lightning which occurs independently of other storm conditions due to hot weather, is actually distant lightning from a storm which might be up to 100 miles away. Thunder can only be heard from a distance of 10-15 miles.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Thunder Lightning. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Thunder Lightning so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor