Not talking about the delay between the Lightning and thunder, that’s obvious enough. But lightning comes and goes in a flash (derp) and thunder stretches out five, ten seconds some times. Is it just an echo? If so, what’s it echoing off of?

  • Rinariji
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    1 year ago

    Light travels faster than sound would be my guess. The Blue Angels used to do their u-turn for NASCAR over my neighborhood and the planes would just zip by so fast, completely silent, then the sound would come, booming, then rolling behind them.

    Edit: My husband says the lightning stretches over a larger distance than you can see from one perspective, so you’re getting the extended sound from the extended flash. The light travels a couple miles in a flash, but a couple miles worth of sound rolls at you slower.