So have you ever wondered what thunder is? If you have then you may have been told that thunder is the sound that lightning makes. Well in simple terms thunder is lightning so who ever told you that was right. Here is the slightly more complex answer.
Lightning is actually a massive bolt of electricity arcing from the clouds to the earth. When lightning moves through the air it super heats the air around the bolt of electricity. Super heating air causes it to expand and then smash into the air around it really quickly. This air smashing around cause massive vibrations which we hear as thunder. When a lightning bolt is really close we hear the big Clap of thunder which then rumbles away. Yet when lightning is far away we normally just hear a bit of a rumble. The rumbling sound comes from the intial Clap of thunder bouncing off the clouds and the ground as it moves towards us. That is why when Lightning is close it rumbles away, because the initial clap is bouncing off the clouds and the ground as it moves away from us.
So in a nutshell that is what thunder is.
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