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Well, according to the Oklahoma University Meteorology records, the loudest thunder clap ever recorded, was recorded in 2003, with the decibel meter hitting an astonishing 712.7! It was said to be as close as 8 meters away. Thanks for the question, hope I helped. :).

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That figure seems suspect - was the meter over-loaded? I recall my texts showing that the maximum sound-level in dB can only represent that of 1Bar, i.e. about 163dB re20µPa peak-to-peak. A little consideration shows that any higher amplitude would call for the -ve, or rarefaction, half-cycle of the sound-wave to drop below (minus 0.5)Bar: is that possible?

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Let's suppose it was, and we could have a sound level that drops the rarefied half-cycle to minus-1Bar, which would be a complete vacuum, albeit instantaneously. That has doubled the intensity from the level above, but in dB counting that only increases the level by 6dB: so (163 + 6) = 169 dB re 20µPa.

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OK, let's take a micro-Pascal (= 1 / 100 000 000 000 Bar) as our reference instead of the conventional 20 of them for airborne sound. Even that only adds 26dB, so the theoretical absolute maximum sound pressure level in air could be no more than 195dB re 1µPa - but that's a fudge because all I've done is change the decibel scale's reference value from 20 to 1 micro-Pascal. The pressure itself has not changed.

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Further, that 712.7dB equates to such an incredibly high pressure that I am incredulous of it and suspect the instrument was over-loaded and broke, or more likely, it was mis-read and mis-reported.

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10y ago

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