Why Do We Have Lightning And Thunder

If you hear thunder then you need to go indoors or get in a car.

Why do we have lightning and thunder. Fleetwood mac captured the essence of thunder and rain in the song dreams thunder only happens when its raining thunder is a consequence of lightning and lightning is born in rain clouds. Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground or within the clouds themselves. If you re nearby to a lightning strike you may have heard thunder as a really loud crack almost like the sound of a whip being cracked. When the ground is hot it heats the air above it.

To make this electric current first you need a cloud. How does lightning form. The reason we see lightning before we hear thunder is because light travels faster than sound. This causes the air to explode outward.

This is what we hear and call thunder the rumbling of thunder is simply caused by the vibration or sound of the air affected by lightning. A scishow kids viewer wants to know why do lightning and thunder happen get your raincoat because jessi will take you inside a thunderstorm to give you. As the air rises water vapour cools and forms a cloud. The sound of thunder should serve as a warning to anyone outside that they are within striking distance of the storm and need to get to a safe place immediately.

How do you know if lightning is nearby. Thunder is the sound caused by a nearby flash of lightning and can be heard for a distance of only about 10 miles from the lightning strike. The rapid expansion and heating of air caused by lightning produces the accompanying loud clap of thunder. When water on the earth s surface is heated by the sun.

Energy from a lightning channel heats the air briefly to around 50 000 degrees fahrenheit much hotter than the surface of the sun. But most of the time we hear thunder as a loud long rumble. Read more about nssl s lightning research here. When lightning is made the same thing happens but on a much bigger scale.

This warm air rises. If you see dark clouds then lightning could be present but the best thing you can do is to listen for thunder.