About 25 seconds. It's closer to 23, but 5 seconds per mile is the general rule of thumb.
Since light travels faster than sound, you can tell how many miles away a thunder storm is by counting. Lightning strikes. 5 seconds pass and you heard thunder. The thunder storm is 5 miles away.
By listening for the thunder. When you see a prominent lightning strike, start counting "one thousand one, one thousand two", etc. Each of those is about one second. There are five seconds in every mile (sound travels 1/5th of a mile per second). If you count to fifteen, the lightning strike is three miles away. Lightning and thunder occur at the same instant when the lightning strike is very close to you, and the thunder will sound more like a cymbal crash.
Light is virtually instantaneous over any distance you'd be aware of a thunderstorm going on. Sound, however, takes five seconds to travel through air for each mile. If the thunder and the lightning are simultaneous, the lightning strike is very close to you. If the thunder is five seconds after the lightning, the lightning was one mile away. If the thunder is ten seconds after the lightning, the lightning was 2 miles away, and so on.
It's popularly known as "heat lightning," but meteorologists will tell you that there is really no such thing as a type of lightning that produces no thunder and is distinct from lightning that produces audible thunder. All lightning produces thunder, but it can only be heard for a distance of at most 15-20 miles under normal conditions. At night in certain conditions, lightning can be visible 125 miles away. You may not be able to hear the thunder because you are too far from the storm, but others within that 15 mile radius can hear thunder following the lightning strike.
While lightning produces very high temperatures, the amount of air it heats is fairly small. In most cases a bolt of lightning is a few miles away, too far away to feel the heat. People have felt the heat from lightning, but only when it struck dangerously close.
5 miles away
Since light travels faster than sound, you can tell how many miles away a thunder storm is by counting. Lightning strikes. 5 seconds pass and you heard thunder. The thunder storm is 5 miles away.
Typically, thunder can be heard up to 10 miles away from a lightning strike. Sound travels much slower than light, so there is a delay between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder.
By listening for the thunder. When you see a prominent lightning strike, start counting "one thousand one, one thousand two", etc. Each of those is about one second. There are five seconds in every mile (sound travels 1/5th of a mile per second). If you count to fifteen, the lightning strike is three miles away. Lightning and thunder occur at the same instant when the lightning strike is very close to you, and the thunder will sound more like a cymbal crash.
Light is virtually instantaneous over any distance you'd be aware of a thunderstorm going on. Sound, however, takes five seconds to travel through air for each mile. If the thunder and the lightning are simultaneous, the lightning strike is very close to you. If the thunder is five seconds after the lightning, the lightning was one mile away. If the thunder is ten seconds after the lightning, the lightning was 2 miles away, and so on.
then the lightning is 2.78 miles away from you.
Thunder is always heard after lightning flashes. The sounds from thunder can be heard from miles away, but you can see lightning and NOT hear thunder. Never the other way around.
It's popularly known as "heat lightning," but meteorologists will tell you that there is really no such thing as a type of lightning that produces no thunder and is distinct from lightning that produces audible thunder. All lightning produces thunder, but it can only be heard for a distance of at most 15-20 miles under normal conditions. At night in certain conditions, lightning can be visible 125 miles away. You may not be able to hear the thunder because you are too far from the storm, but others within that 15 mile radius can hear thunder following the lightning strike.
If it is a thunderstorm, you check how long it takes to hear the thunder after you see a lightning strike. For every five seconds, the lightning strike is about one mile away. The lightning causes the thunder, and the sound travels at a speed of about one mile per five seconds.
If you mean hearing thunder right after a lightning, it is because sound travels slower than light, and thus, you would hear the thunder a bit later than seeing a lightning strike.
Count each second when you see Lightning, until when you hear Thunder, divide it by 3, and for example 60 divided by 3 makes 20 right, so that means that it is 20 miles away, so that's your answer, Thunder that is heard one minute after the Lightning is 20 miles away.
After you here thunder every 6 seconds until the next lightning strike it is a mile.