Heat lightning...myth, or real??

Question

Heat lightning...myth, or real??

Answer 1

Myth.   If a thunderstorm occurs far away from you, chances are you will not here it and you many not even see the lightning bolt.   What you see is refracted and reflected light from those thunderstorms in the distance.

Answer 2

Heat lightning is what regular lightning that you can't hear. But it doesn't actually have much to do with heat. Its the same as regular lightning but you can't hear the sound because of the structure of the atmosphere. Rapid vertical changes in temperature cause density changes and act to refract or reflect sound waves. In some cases people at a certain distance from a storm end up in "dead areas" where there is no sound reaching that area from the lightning because it has been directed elsewhere.

Cheers,

Andrew