Why isn't there thunder at night?

Question

This summer, I have seen a lot of lightning, most of which was pretty close, but have not heard hardly any thunder at night. Why is this?

Answer 1

There is thunder at night.

Except that, at night, since it is dark, you can see lightnings much farther, so far away that the thunder sound is sometime muffled and not noticeable anymore.

Answer 2

I think you are referring to "heat lightning"

It is possible that the lightning is just too far away to hear the thunder ( thunder can generally only travel approximately 10 miles)

The other explanation is that the sound of thunder is being refracted by different air densities.  The difference in air densities is caused by temperature differences at different altitudes.  So if you see lightning that appears close, it is possible that the air above you has varying temperatures and therefore the sound of the thunder is refracted in different directions before reaching you on the ground.  I hope that makes sense :)

Answer 3

There is thunder at night.

The lightning that you've seen is not close enough that you can hear the thunder.  It LOOKS close, but it is not.

It is said that the only time that you DON'T hear thunder is if the lightning strikes you -- so you don't hear the thunder when you're dead!

Answer 4

umm there is thunder at night...

Answer 5

its not raining but its thindering right now here.

and its 11 at night.

so yeah haha.

its heat lighting here.

Answer 6

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...