Is lighing real loud if it hits your car during a thunderstorm?

Question

is it ture that lighting can be really loud if it hits your car?

Answer 1

I once saw lightning to hit a mast a few yards from me. I lost my hearing for nearly the rest of the day. Yes, it is loud!

This being said, an urban legend says that it is safe to be in a car during a thunderstorm because the rubber tyres isolate the car from the ground. That is not true. It is relatively safe to be in a car during a thunderstorm because the metal chassis makes a Faraday's cage around you and electricity always travels outside such a cage.

Answer 2

Yes, and it would be terrifying as well.   It would be like a large cracking sound..

Answer 3

Strange as it might seem, I suspect you would not say that lightning hitting your car was loud.  By this I mean that the sound would probably overwhelm your ability to hear.  I suspect this is similar to being cut with something that is very sharp.  Initially you don't feel the cut but later you might.  I have heard of solders being badly wounded and not knowing until much later because of the environment the solder was in.

Answer 4

The lighting itself would be somewhat loud as it is a big spark of electricity.  The bigger sound explosion would be the rapidly heated and expanding air, what we know as thunder.  And yes, thunder only a few hundred feet away is amazingly loud.