Is heat lightning real?

Question

Is heat lightning real?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

LOL -- two folks on here copied the same bit of text from the Web, and neither cited their source!

I see now that they ripped it from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_lightn...

Answer 3

Of course it is. The name "heat" came about because of it's occurance during hot summer nights. It can be so far distant that you don't hear the thunder. Because of the air density, the sound isn't transferred to where you can hear it. The discharges are more than likely of a lower voltage and sooner than the usual build up. There isn't the usual sound shockwave like with conventional thunder storms.

Answer 4

Yes it is...

Heat lightning is a misnomer for the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon or other clouds from distant thunderstorms that do not have accompanying sounds of thunder. Heat lightning was named because it often occurs on hot summer nights, and to distinguish it from lightning with accompanying thunder. Heat lightning can be an early warning sign that thunderstorms are approaching. In Florida, heat lightning is often seen out over the water at night, the remnants of storms that formed during the day along a sea breeze front coming in from the opposite coast.

There are two possible reasons for the lack of thunder. In some cases, the thunderstorm may be too distant to hear the associated thunder from the lightning discharge. Thunder rarely travels more than 10 miles. Other cases can be explained by the refraction of sound by bodies of air with different densities. An observer may see nearby lightning, but the sound from the discharge is refracted over his head by a change in the temperature, and therefore the density, of the air around him. As a result, the lightning discharge seems to be silent. There is evidence that suggests some cases of heat lightning are, in fact, slow, diffuse discharges of electricity.

Answer 5

Heat lightning is a misnomer for the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon or other clouds from distant thunderstorms that do not have accompanying sounds of thunder. Heat lightning was named because it often occurs on hot summer nights, and to distinguish it from lightning with accompanying thunder. Heat lightning can be an early warning sign that thunderstorms are approaching. In Florida, heat lightning is often seen out over the water at night, the remnants of storms that formed during the day along a sea breeze front coming in from the opposite coast.

There are two possible reasons for the lack of thunder. In some cases, the thunderstorm may be too distant to hear the associated thunder from the lightning discharge. Thunder rarely travels more than 10 miles. Other cases can be explained by the refraction of sound by bodies of air with different densities. An observer may see nearby lightning, but the sound from the discharge is refracted over his head by a change in the temperature, and therefore the density, of the air around him. As a result, the lightning discharge seems to be silent. There is evidence that suggests some cases of heat lightning are, in fact, slow, diffuse discharges of electricity.

Answer 6

yes it is. i lived in florida for a few years and during the summer when it was hot and cloudy the molecules in the clouds would react to the static and cause an electric pulse also known as heat lighting. i would watch the heat lightning and there wouldnt be a drop of water falling for hundreds of miles