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Thunderless lightning...

King of the Americas said:
...the tree wa split down the middle, and had to be removed. 'I' saw the burn marks at the top of the split, and asked "Did that happen the other night? I think I should have heard something that close!"

And my neighbor remarked, "I saw the damn thing hit, and I didn't hear anything!"

But he further added, "Well I DID hear the thing (the TREE) crack and split, but I expected it t be much louder."

I do't think I have EVER seen a tree 'exploded' or 'blown apart' by lightening...
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I once had a large, smoldering hunk of lightening-exploded tree land on a tent I was cowering in. Come to think of it, that lightening strike didn't make any sound either, because it was so loud that it struck me deaf. All I could hear for five minutes afterwards was a high-pitched squeal in my ears.

I still wake up in cold sweats reliving that one from time to time.
 
Psiload said:
I once had a large, smoldering hunk of lightening-exploded tree land on a tent I was cowering in. Come to think of it, that lightening strike didn't make any sound either, because it was so loud that it struck me deaf. All I could hear for five minutes afterwards was a high-pitched squeal in my ears.

I still wake up in cold sweats reliving that one from time to time.
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Hey, now that is something I hadn't considered...

Could an initial sound blast have deafened me to all that followed?

I DO recall spending a fair amount of time outside, and not inside listening to TV or my wife.

I have no recollections of my ears 'ringing', however.
 
I've seen such lightnings too .. and they were fairly close, cloud-ground type. I know they were close because there were hitting the city, and were in front of distant buildings, I estimate the distance to not more then 5 km.
And they made exactly NO sound at all. It was nice thick non-branched lightnings. Another strange thing was they were purple. Usually they are more like blue. Not these. But perceiving colors near white is pretty tricky, as any photographer would know, and this was evening, the lighting was all around strange.
Imho it is the sound bending because of the thermal layers. Specifically the sound bended upwards, leaving shadow zones near ground. I have done little program for that (for use in submarine simulation), so if anyone is interested, let me know.
 
Dr.Sid said:
I've seen such lightnings too .. and they were fairly close, cloud-ground type. I know they were close because there were hitting the city, and were in front of distant buildings, I estimate the distance to not more then 5 km.
And they made exactly NO sound at all. It was nice thick non-branched lightnings. Another strange thing was they were purple. Usually they are more like blue. Not these. But perceiving colors near white is pretty tricky, as any photographer would know, and this was evening, the lighting was all around strange.
Imho it is the sound bending because of the thermal layers. Specifically the sound bended upwards, leaving shadow zones near ground. I have done little program for that (for use in submarine simulation), so if anyone is interested, let me know.
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VERY interesting...
 
Dancing David said:
I think that I have seen similar lightening, especialy the 'chain lightening' up in the sky. Seems that maybe you check with your local weather station to find out how far away the strikes were, they may actually have been on the horizon.

Peace
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This. I've seen lightning and never heard anything lots of times. I always figured it was further away than I thought. I suppose humidity and rain density between here and there might affect how rapidly the sound energy dissipates, too, though that would be a relatively minor component compared to sheer distance. Deep rumbles like to go through things easily (as anybody who's ever lived in an apartment can tell you :)).
 
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DanishDynamite said:
I've experienced similar in the Philippines. An incredible lightning storm (2-3 seconds between each flash) and yet no thunder at all. Very beautiful and relaxing to watch. Relaxing, because the random bolts of millions of Volts were clearly happening far way.

Nice link, Denise.
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Visited my gramma in Tampa, that reminds me, I have to send her a B-day card for her 98th coming up, has some of the worst lightning storms, too. I just couldn't believe it, it is as you say, a strike every 2-3 seconds for 45 minutes.

I never saw anything remotely like it in our home state of Michigan. I read it was due to the hot, humid Gulf air rolling in.
 
I think part of the problem here is that lightning, especially big, impressive cloud to cloud lightning, is very difficult to place. If you don't hear the clap you have no way to judge the distance, and if there are multiple bolts, it's very easy to attribute the thunder to the wrong one, leaving another seemingly silent.
 
Beerina said:
I never saw anything remotely like it in our home state of Michigan. I read it was due to the hot, humid Gulf air rolling in.
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That, and the east coast sea breeze colliding with the west coast sea breeze, which often happens just inland of the west coast. Other things that don't happen in Michigan: a storm forming directly above you on a clear blue day, spreading out to a one mile diameter, raining itself out and drying up, without ever moving; two inches of rain in one place and none at all two blocks over.
 
bruto said:
No. If that's how you estimate distance then your estimate of distance is too unreliable to continue discussing.
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I am sorry, I wasn't entirely clear.

As a child we would often count the seconds it took for the thunder to reach us, after the lightning.

USUALLY the brighter the flash the 'sooner', we'd expect to hear the thunder.

This night was most unusual in that the thunder was sparse or non-existent, regardless of the brightness of the flashes.

The weather channel noted the cloud ceiling between 2500-3500. In my non-expert opinion, the clouds all looked VERY low...
 
King of the Americas said:
<snip>

I do't think I have EVER seen a tree 'exploded' or 'blown apart' by lightening...
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bruto said:
I have, and it's pretty dramatic. And loud. Pine trees tend to blow apart when hit, I'm told it's because the lightning boils the pitch and it's the steam as much as anything that blows the tree up. On the other hand, I've seen an oak tree with the scars of multiple lightning hits, still healthy.
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Me too.

My boys and I happened to be by the window years ago when a tree across the street was hit. It was a mature loblolly pine about eighty ft. high and maybe twelve inch caliper. Probably around fifty yards or so away.

We heard the noise from the lightning first, which is what caused us to see the tree explode. Splinters of tree as big around as my thigh ended up a good hundred ft. down the road. The top half of the tree, complete with crown, ended up standing vertically beside the lower trunk, as if it had been planted there.

The same lightning strike also fried my next-door neighbor's well pump.


Psiload said:
I once had a large, smoldering hunk of lightening-exploded tree land on a tent I was cowering in. Come to think of it, that lightening strike didn't make any sound either, because it was so loud that it struck me deaf. All I could hear for five minutes afterwards was a high-pitched squeal in my ears.

I still wake up in cold sweats reliving that one from time to time.
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We definitely heard something, and it was LOUD. The sound of the tree exploding was quite distinctly a separate noise. Perhaps since we were indoors and behind a thermo-pane, double-glazed window it attenuated the sound intensity enough that our hearing wasn't overwhelmed. I recall a brief moment of surprise that the windows hadn't cracked.
 
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Here is a link to a story about lightning hitting a military helicopter at an airshow in Cincinnati about 10 years ago.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/27/loc_lightning_hurts_4_at.html

I was standing under a concession tent about 100 yds away from that helicopter when this happened, and I remember the deafening thunder that happened simultaneously to the strike. It was pouring rain, almost blindingly, when that bolt struck.

I also remember being in my garage during one rapidly approaching storm, standing about 2 feet outside (the rain hadnt started yet), when I saw lightning stuck my neighbors house a few doors down from where I was. There was an incredibly bright, deep blue flash of light, and a huge ZZZZZSSSHNGZOTTT-like sound similar to what Checkmite described, but no rumbly or cracking thunder one might expect. Two experiences of being very close to lightning strikes, and two competely different types of sounds.
 
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