Thunderstorm question?

Question

This morning when I woke up from sleep, I heard thunder outside and saw lightning. I turned on the tv to see where the storms were on the radar. There was a line just west of where I lived. For the next half hour, I checked the radar and the storms were right over my area, but they appeared to be dying out. The last radar shot I saw was just green rain radar with small pockets of yellow. I decided to shut off the tv, then all of a sudden there was an extremely loud thunder boom, as you would here in a severe thunderstorm. These storms were not severe or strong, according to the national weather service, so why would there be a boom that loud? It knocked out my cable too.

Answer 1

You simply had a close lightning strike.  Even weak thunderstorms by definition produce lightning.  The National Weather Service deems a storm severe if it is producing hail at least 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and/or wind gusts at least 58 mph.  The amount of lightning is not considered.  I have seen many severe storms with little lightning, and weak storms with lots of lightning.