How is the noise of thunder caused?

Answer 1

sound caused by a lightning discharge. Lightning heats the air in its path and causes a large over-pressure of the air within its channel. The channel expands supersonically into the surrounding air as a shock wave and creates an acoustic signal that is heard as thunder. The loudest thunder heard after a flash to the ground is actually produced by the return stroke.

Answer 2

the thunder is loud because of contraction and expansion of the hot air between two charged cloud.

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That would indeed half-explain. the sound's origin but does not answer the question. Firstly, you've muddled the lightning with its acoustic effect: the air expands violently because it is heated violently by the lightning stroke, creating pressure-waves that are the thunder. Secondly, the intensity of the sound is extremely high close to the lightning but falls by an inverse-square law with distance, so if you are 2 miles from it, it will be only a quarter of the intensity it has at only 1 mile away. Go 4 miles and the intensity is 1/16 that at 1 mile.

Answer 3

it is caused by the retraction of the actual lightning bolt creating a vaccum that the air rushes into

Answer 4

It's caused by the electrical discharge of the lightning bolt. It's similar to the 'crack' sound you hear from an electrical cable that's 'shorting out' - just on a much larger scale.

Answer 5

Thunder is created by lightning. The bolt of lightning super heats the air very quickly and it expands quickly like the gases from a firecracker or rifle shot to make the noise