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Lightning is very hot, about 27760 degrees Celsius. When the lightning heats the air around it , the air instantly expands, resounding with a shock wave.
The clap is an indication of how close you are to the lightning strike, a sharp bang means you are very close ( the sound will come almost immediately after the strike or at the same time), if you are farther away it will sound like a rumble as the sound waves bounce off the geographical features on its way to you ( the thunder will come several seconds later than the lightning strike )
As kids we used to count the seconds that it took for the thunder to resound after a lightning strike to tell how far away it was, one second for one mile

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15y ago

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