4/16/2023 0 Comments Google reader air![]() Route 66 in the Texas panhandle. Carol M. A massive cloud presages a thunderstorm above Groom, a tiny community along old U.S. The result is a shock wave, with a loud, booming burst of noise sent in every direction. As the heated air expands, the pressure drops, the air cools, and it contracts. Under such pressure, the heated air explodes outward from the channel, compressing the surrounding air. ![]() The rapid rise in temperature creates a rapid increase in the air pressure as well, rising to 10 to 100 times the normal atmospheric pressure. The heat from the electricity of this return stroke raises the temperature of the surrounding air to around 27,000 C° (48,632 F°). However, the grumbles and growls we hear in thunderstorms actually come from the rapid expansion of the air surrounding the lightning bolt.Īs lightning connects to the ground from the clouds, a second stroke of lightning will return from the ground to the clouds, following the same channel as the first strike. The loud thunder that follows the lightning bolt is commonly said to come from the bolt itself. NOAA Photo Library.įrom the clouds to a nearby tree or roof, a lightning bolt takes only a few thousandths of a second to split through the air. Pete Gregoire, photographer, NOAA Weather in Focus Photo Contest 2015. Monsoon storm producing a forked lightning bolt from the Red Hills Visitors Center at Saguaro National Park in Arizona. Thunder is caused by the rapid expansion of the air surrounding the path of a lightning bolt.
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