Horizontal temperature changes, due mainly to air pockets and columns of rising or falling air, also bend sound waves. All this simultaneous refraction results in myriad crisscrossing sound waves. Sound waves are also influenced by destructive interference. When similar waves are superimposed, their vibrations oppose or support each other, which results in a haphazard mixture of cancelled and reinforced sounds.
Therefore, when lightning is a few miles away, we hear throbbing variations of sound — the rumble of thunder. Interesting article and very clearly written. Join us for a much anticipated return to the Lone Star State! Earlybird ticket discounts are now available online. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more. That's why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our earth-friendly automatic renewal savings plan.
The Science Behind the Sound of Thunder The meteorological science behind the sound of thunder is complex, but the basics are easy to understand.
What causes the rumbles after a lightning strike? Here's the phenomenon of thunder, explained. Continue Reading. Share your thoughts. Related Content. The Backyard Homestead. Add to cart. Basic Bread Baking E-Handbook. Not exactly, but there is a lot of shuffling going on inside the cloud.
Lightning begins as static charges in a rain cloud. Winds inside the cloud are very turbulent. Water droplets in the bottom part of the cloud are caught in the updrafts and lifted to great heights where the much colder atmosphere freezes them.
Meanwhile, downdrafts in the cloud push ice and hail down from the top of the cloud. Where the ice going down meets the water coming up, electrons are stripped off. It's a little more complicated than that, but what results is a cloud with a negatively charged bottom and a positively charged top.
These electrical fields become incredibly strong, with the atmosphere acting as an insulator between them in the cloud. Lightning happens.
The electric field "looks" for a doorknob. Sort of. It looks for the closest and easiest path to release its charge. Often lightning occurs between clouds or inside a cloud. But the lightning we usually care about most is the lightning that goes from clouds to ground—because that's us! W hat does lightning sound like? The obvious answer is in the boom of thunder : an explosion of expanding, superheated air.
But there are more subtle and less understood noises associated with lightning, known as brontophonic sounds, which are heard far less frequently. Two features make these sounds distinguishable from thunder. One is that in contrast to the deep reverberation of thunder, brontophonic sounds sound like the hissing of a red-hot iron in water or the tearing of fabric.
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