Lightning and thunder.?

Question

How is it formed?

From where?

Etc?

Answer 1

Thunder is the sound that lightning makes. The cloud has water molecules and the air that contracts is the sound of thunder. The cloud has positives charges on the top and negatives on the bottom causing lightening. If you see lightening, and after 5 seconds hear thunder, the storm is one mile away. So if you do the math, every 5 seconds is one mile. Lightening can strike 10-15 miles from its cloud. So if you see lightning and see thunder 30 seconds or less, that means it is possible that lighting could strike any moment. If you feel that your hairs are standing up, then lightening is going to strike soon.

Answer 2

Lightning is the result of the buildup of opposite charged electrostatics. Since opposites attract, electric charge is accelerated through a potential difference towards another set of electric charge that is opposite.

Since lightning has an average of 30,000 Amperes of electric current and heats nearby air to an estimated 18,000°F, a tremendous expansion of air occurs, which produces a shockwave known as thunder.

Lightning flows from clouds to other clouds or from clouds to the Earth's surface. Thunder flows in all directions outward from a lightning bolt.

Answer 3

Ok.  I'll answer the simplest one first.

Thunder:  When you have a large electrical discharge, like a lightning bolt, the air around it heats up quite a bit.  Basically what you're hearing is the expansion and contraction of all that air.

Lightning:  In clouds, you have a lot of dust particles, water vapor, water droplets, etc.  Well, water is a polar molecule, meaning one side of it has a positive charge, and the other has a negative charge.  Since positive charges are attracted to negative charges, you wind up with a cloud formation that is basically one charge on top, and another on bottom (I'm afraid I don't remember which is usually on top).  In order to balance things out, an opposite charge is formed in the ground surface below the cloud.  When the charges build up enough and get close enough together, a discharge happens causing extraneous electrons to move from one place to the other.  That's lightning.