Lightening

[mcrowder]

Originally Posted by johnSandlin

They said lightning is lightning and thunder is thunder.

This is an odd statement, considering that A) one causes the other and B) since the speed of sound and the speed of light are constants, you can relatively easily determine the distance between you and the lightning by counting the time to the thunder.

Like I said earlier - if you see a bolt, it's within your 7-mile sight line (the clouds you see right at the horizon, if you're in a flat area, is directly above ground that is 7 miles away). If you just see "a flash", it could VERY easily be reflected light through the clouds from quite a distance away - which is why the 30 second rule helps you. It could also be heat lightning (which has nothing to do with the type of lightning that strikes the ground), which produces that low-level rolling thunder sound.