First, watch for lightning. The second it hits the ground, starts counting in seconds. Stop when you hear thunder. divide the seconds by 5 to get how many miles away the lightning is. For kilometers, divide the seconds by 3.
You can estimate how far away a storm is by counting the seconds between seeing a lightning flash and hearing the thunder. Sound travels approximately 1 mile every 5 seconds, so divide the number of seconds by 5 to get the distance in miles. Keep in mind that this method is just an estimate.
If you see lightning but don't hear thunder, it means the lightning is far away. The speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound, so you usually see lightning before you hear the associated thunder.
Potentially. Heat lightning is not a special kind of lightning: it is simply lightning that is too far away for the thunder to be heard. A fatal lightning bolt in a storm might only be visible as heat lightning 30 miles away.
Thunder is the sound caused by lightning, there is always thunder with lightning. If you cannot hear thunder maybe that is because you are too far away from the storm.
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.
To determine how far away lightning is, count the seconds between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. Divide this number by 5 to estimate the distance in miles.
Lightning from a distant thunderstorm too far away for thunder to be heard
Heat lightning is just ordinary lightning that is too far away for you to hear the thunder.
Lightning without thunder during a storm is typically caused by a phenomenon known as heat lightning. Heat lightning occurs when lightning strikes far away and the sound of thunder does not travel as far as the light from the strike. This can happen when the storm is too far away for the sound waves to reach your location, resulting in the appearance of lightning without the accompanying thunder.
You can estimate how far away a storm is by counting the seconds between seeing a lightning flash and hearing the thunder. Sound travels approximately 1 mile every 5 seconds, so divide the number of seconds by 5 to get the distance in miles. Keep in mind that this method is just an estimate.
If you see lightning but don't hear thunder, it means the lightning is far away. The speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound, so you usually see lightning before you hear the associated thunder.
To tell how far away a storm is note the seconds between the appearance of lightning and the sound of thunder. Every second between lightning and thunder represents one mile.
Potentially. Heat lightning is not a special kind of lightning: it is simply lightning that is too far away for the thunder to be heard. A fatal lightning bolt in a storm might only be visible as heat lightning 30 miles away.
Lightning in clouds without the sound of thunder is often caused by heat lightning. This type of lightning occurs when a storm is far away and the sound of thunder cannot travel as far as the light from the lightning.
Lightning can strike up to 30 miles from the parent storm cell, though such cases are rare.
the lightning was 0.8 miles away.
Thunder is the sound caused by lightning, there is always thunder with lightning. If you cannot hear thunder maybe that is because you are too far away from the storm.