# Scientific Lightning Strike Question



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

So last night was a long and major thunderstorm in my area, which woke me up with its thunder. I couldn't sleep for an hour probably because it was just so annoyingly _loud_, even though the amount of lightning wasn't that much. But then around 5 AM, something strange happened. Half asleep, unlike the other instances, I saw a flash and heard a BOOM occur instantaneously, like a bomb, no echoing. After a split-second silence, in the 2-3 seconds afterwards, I heard a cracking that sounded like a tree or branch was split in half, and falling apart. But I heard no crash onto my house, phew! Well this morning, I went outside, and looked around. Nothing. No damage.

I've gone looking at many articles to explain what I witnessed, but I hadn't found anything quite like what i heard. Most cases, it's said that the cracking sound is a "leader" which comes _prior _to the actual clap of thunder, but in my case it was the _opposite_ and came after. So, what could it have been? Re-strikes? In any case, it was a little traumatizing since the cracking sounded exactly like wood breaking and I thought something really bad could have happened.


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

Possibly the lightning struck very very close. I believe thunder is created when the lightning heats the air surrounding it very quickly. Usually we see the flash separate from the thunder because light travels faster than sound~much faster. The farther away one is from the strike the longer time between it and the sound of quickly expanding heated air~thunder...

Our home was struck the other night, good thing for ground wire/lightening rods. What you describe is exactly what we experienced.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Adding another scientific lightning question: do there exist statistics of worldwide lightning strikes and do these statistics show a significant increase during recent years in comparison with the past? Our place of living, the Dutch isle of Texel, used to be a notable exception of receiving thunderstorms in the summertime. Recently however, this has changed for the worse....


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

TxllxT said:


> Adding another scientific lightning question: do there exist statistics of worldwide lightning strikes and do these statistics show a significant increase during recent years in comparison with the past? Our place of living, the Dutch isle of Texel, used to be a notable exception of receiving thunderstorms in the summertime. Recently however, this has changed for the worse....


http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/stats/Table-Flashes_by_State_1997-2011.pdf
http://geology.com/articles/lightning-map.shtml

I don't think there's anything more detailed/goes further back that's readily available and/or accurate. And I couldn't find the worldwide equivalent for the first link.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

hawk said:


> ... I believe thunder is created when the lightning heats the air surrounding it very quickly...


Strictly speaking, the thunder is the sound of the shock wave caused by the rapid expansion of the air due to rapidly increasing temperature and pressure caused by the lightning.


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