When lightning strikes, we hear a rumbling sound as if the sky is exploding. “Thunder” This rumbling sound we call can be frightening to some people, especially animals that cannot understand what is happening.

Really, what exactly is happening at that moment? a loud rumbling sound comes up? Let’s explain it in the light of science.

To understand the source of the sound heard when lightning strikes, we must first understand how the process occurs.

Lightning is a large amount of lightning that occurs within a cloud or between the cloud and the ground. sudden discharge of electric charge difference is formed.

Discharge during lightning creates a temperature very quickly, up to approximately 30,000°C. This temperature rise so suddenly and loudly It changes the air molecules causing the electrical discharge to turn into plasma and create lightning.

Heat expands the air.

The resulting excess heat suddenly expands the air along the channel through which the lightning travels. Because this expansion occurs so quickly, the air is compressed under intense pressure “pressure wave” is formed.

This creates a shock wave that quickly spreads to the surrounding area. The shock wave propagates at the speed of sound (about 343 m/s) and we hear this wave We hear it as “thunder”.

There are also reasons why we hear thunder in different ways.

Sometimes the thunder lasts for a short time, sometimes it lasts a long time, sometimes it is a loud rumble and sometimes it is a less loud noise. This situation the surfaces that sound waves encounter as they propagate through the atmosphere coming from (clouds, mountains, buildings).

Sound waves reflect off these obstacles and travel from different angles. reaches our ears again and again and can be heard at different lengths, with low or high frequencies. For example, we hear thunder in different sounds.

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