What is "heat lightning"?

Question

Maybe it is just a saying-I live in the south. I know what lightning is (obviously), and I was wondering what the term meant.

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_lightn...

Answer 2

There is no such thing as "heat lightning." All that you are seeing is lightning from a distant thunderstorm that is so far away from you that you can not hear thunder. This is a misconception among most people and that is how it got the term "heat lightning." At night on a clear night you can see lightning up to 100 miles away. Here is a good site on lightning.

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightnin...

Answer 3

It starts at the ground and comes to the sky and its all heat formed