How do clouds create lightning and thunder?

Answer 1

Differential electrical charges within the clouds or between the clouds and the ground cause the lightning. Thunder is caused by the rapid expansion of the air that the lightning passes through, the air expands because it is heated by the lightning to many thousands of degrees very quickly.

Thunder is the sound of lightning hitting the ground, and lightning is just the electric attraction between the cloud and the ground

Actually, thunder is the release of energy and lightning occurs when opposite charges build up in thunderstorm cloud. As a result around 58 are killed and more than 300 are injured due to lightning strikes.

It's when the clouds gather up the energy from the Sun (thats why the Sun soon hides away) and it builds up electricity and they release the energy which is lightning. Clouds don't create thunder, Lightning does because thunder is that sound when lightning occurs.

Answer 2

Thunder is caused by the rapid expansion of the air surrounding the path of a lightning bolt.

From the clouds to a nearby tree or roof, a lightning bolt takes only a few thousandths of a second to split through the air. The loud thunder that follows the lightning bolt is commonly said to come from the bolt itself. However, the grumbles and growls we hear in thunderstorms actually come from the rapid expansion of the air surrounding the lightning bolt.

As lightning connects to the ground from the clouds, a second stroke of lightning will return from the ground to the clouds, following the same channel as the first strike. The heat from the electricity of this return stroke raises the temperature of the surrounding air to around 27,000 C° (48,632 F°). Since the lightning takes so little time to go from point A to point B, the heated air has no time to expand. The heated air is compressed, raising the air from 10 to 100 times the normal atmospheric pressure. The compressed air explodes outward from the channel, forming a shock wave of compressed particles in every direction. Like an explosion, the rapidly expanding waves of compressed air create a loud, booming burst of noise.

Because electricity follows the shortest route, most lightning bolts are close to vertical. The shock waves nearer to the ground reach your ear first, followed by the crashing of the shock waves from higher up. Vertical lightning is often heard in one long rumble. However, if a lightning bolt is forked, the sounds change. The shock waves from the different forks of lightning bounce off each other, the low hanging clouds, and nearby hills to create a series of lower, continuous grumbles of thunder.

Thunder Fun Facts:

• To judge how close lightning is, count the seconds between the flash and the thunderclap. Each second represents about 300m (984.25ft).
• Thunder is not only heard during thunderstorms. It is uncommon, but not rare, to hear thunder when it is snowing.
• Lightning does not always create thunder. In April 1885, five lightning bolts struck the Washington Monument during a thunderstorm, yet no thunder was heard.

Answer 3

No. Clouds are not solid objects, so they cannot bang into each other. Thunder occurs when lightning instantly superheats the air, causing it to expand. This creates a shockwave that we hear as thunder.

Answer 4

Lightning occurs when electrical charges within a cloud or between a cloud and the ground become unbalanced. As the charges seek to neutralize, lightning is produced. The rapid expansion of air around the lightning bolt creates the sound waves that we hear as thunder.

Answer 5

it is due to the particales in the clouds jumping from one side to another but it is also the noise of the lightning

Answer 6

Very dark cloud