What force causes thunder?

Thunder is created when lightning passes through the air. The lightning discharge heats the air rapidly and causes it to expand. The temperature of the air in the lightning channel may reach as high as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
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What type of force causes lightning?

Lightning is a natural phenomenon formed by electrostatic discharges through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions, either both in the atmosphere or one in the atmosphere and one on the ground, temporarily neutralizing these in a near-instantaneous release of an average of between 200 megajoules and 7 ...
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What actually causes thunder?

Answer. Thunder is caused by the rapid expansion of the air surrounding the path of a lightning bolt. Monsoon storm producing a forked lightning bolt from the Red Hills Visitors Center at Saguaro National Park in Arizona.
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What is the physics behind thunder?

Thunder. Thunder is the sound made by a flash of lightning. As lightning passes through the air it heats the air quickly. This causes the air to expand rapidly and creates the sound wave we hear as thunder.
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What actually causes lightning?

Lightning begins as static charges in a rain cloud. Winds inside the cloud are very turbulent. Water droplets in the bottom part of the cloud are caught in the updrafts and lifted to great heights where the much colder atmosphere freezes them.
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What Causes Thunder & Lightning? | THUNDERSTORM | The Dr Binocs Show | Peekaboo Kidz

What causes lightning without thunder?

Heat lightning is an unofficial term used to describe what people perceive as lightning produced without thunder. Heat lightning is just regular lightning caused by a distant thunderstorm whose light can be seen from reflections across great distances.
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What are the 3 types of lightning?

Cloud to Cloud: Lightning that occurs between two or more separate clouds. Cloud to Ground: Lightning that occurs between the cloud and the ground. Cloud to Air: Lightning that occurs when the air around a positively charged cloud top reaches out to the negatively charged air around it.
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Why does thunder happen without rain?

Dry thunderstorms generally occur in deserts or places where the lower layers of the atmosphere usually contain little water vapor. Any precipitation that falls from elevated thunderstorms can be entirely evaporated as it falls through the lower dry layers.
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Is thunder caused by gravity or other forces?

Thunder is caused by lightning, which is essentially a stream of electrons flowing between or within clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. The air surrounding the electron stream is heated to as hot as 50,000 degrees Farhenheit, which is three times hotter than the surface of the sun.
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Why is thunder so powerful?

How does thunder work and why is it so loud? The electrical discharge is very great, millions of amperes of electrical discharge from the clouds to other clouds, to the ground, and to tall objects like buildings, towers and trees. This electrical discharge is so intense, it vaporizes the air molecules in its way.
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Why is thunder so loud in Texas?

"It's traveling slower through the cold air, faster through the warm air above, so that actually makes the sound waves refract more towards the ground."
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Is thunder a sonic boom?

Overview. Thunder is a result of the rapid expansion of super heated air caused by the extremely high temperature of lightning. As a lightning bolt passes through the air, the air expands faster than the speed of sound, generating a "sonic boom".
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Why do we see lightning before thunder?

In nature, a lightning flash and the associated thunder occur at almost the same time in a thunderstorm. A person on the ground sees the lightning flash before hearing the thunder because light at a speed of around 300,000,000 meters per second travels much faster than sound which moves at 340 meters per second.
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What is the difference between lightning and thunder?

Lightning is an electrical discharge between cloud and cloud, or cloud and ground (or a house or tree etc if that is nearer to the cloud than the flat ground). Thunder is the noise created by the lightning flash as it violently heats, and thus expands, the air during its travel.
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Does lightning or thunder come first?

You see lightning before you hear thunder because light travels faster than sound. Originally Answered: Which comes first thunder or lightning?
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What attracts lightning to a house?

Objects that are tall, or objects that are good for conducting electricity will attract lightning. Stay away from them. Inside your home, stay away from anything connected with wires or piping (TVs, lights, appliances, faucets, etc.).
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Is thunder a form of matter?

Thunder is a phenomenon arising from sound waves. It is not a tangible object. Lightning, on the other hand, is a plasma... "The fourth state of matter".
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Is thunder caused by friction?

Friction also occurs in thunder clouds – air currents cause water and ice to move around in the clouds causing water molecules to bump into each other – to collide – generating friction and causing tiny particles called electrons to get knocked out of the molecules.
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What causes thunder and thunderstorms?

There are three basic ingredients needed for thunderstorm development: moisture, an unstable atmosphere, and some way to start the atmosphere moving.
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Is there ever lightning without thunder?

No, it is not possible to have thunder without lightning. Thunder starts as a shockwave from the explosively expanding lightning channel when a large current causes rapid heating. However, it is possible that you might see lightning and not hear the thunder because it was too far away.
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Can you shower during a thunderstorm?

If lightning strikes a building, it may travel through the plumbing. Showering during a thunderstorm may increase a person's risk of electrocution. This risk is greater with metal pipes than plastic pipes, but it is still best to avoid using any plumbing system or running water during a thunderstorm.
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Are dry lightning storms real?

Dry lightning, which can spark fires, is common in Northern California, study shows - The Washington Post.
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What is the rarest type of lightning?

Upward-moving lightning bolts like these are known as gigantic jets. They are the rarest and most powerful type of lightning, occurring as few as 1,000 times a year and packing more than 50 times the power of a typical lightning bolt.
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Why is it unsafe to be at the beach during a lightning storm?

Lightning regularly strikes water, and since water conducts electricity, a nearby lightning strike could kill or injure you. Any time you hear thunder, or see lightning, you should get out of the water and into a safe place.
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Is lightning 3 times hotter than the sun?

In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
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