Thunder and lightning happen when clouds bump into each other in the sky! 🌩️ When they bump, it makes a big spark called lightning. The loud sound after the spark is thunder—it's like the sky clapping its hands! 👏
Lightning is very fast and bright, and thunder is its noisy friend. They usually come together when it rains a lot.
Thunder and lightning are caused by electricity in the clouds! ⚡ When tiny ice particles inside storm clouds rub together, they create an electric charge. When the charge gets too big—ZAP!—lightning flashes to balance it out.
Thunder is the sound of the air exploding because lightning heats it up super fast. Since light travels faster than sound, we see lightning before hearing thunder.
Thunder and lightning are the result of powerful electrical discharges in thunderstorms. ⚡ Inside a storm cloud, rising warm air and falling cool air cause ice crystals and water droplets to collide, creating separated positive and negative charges. When the difference becomes too great, a lightning bolt occurs—either within the cloud or between the cloud and the ground.
Thunder is the shockwave produced by the rapid expansion of air heated to ~30,000°C by the lightning. The delay between lightning and thunder helps estimate the storm's distance (count seconds, divide by 3 for kilometers).