Although it is a dangerous and adverse weather phenomenon, storms offer one of nature’s most amazing spectacles. Contemplating (well sheltered) how the sky seems to break between lights and sounds is a fascinating experience.

Thunder, lightning and lightning are the main ingredients of this heavenly cocktail. Some people get confused when pointing out the differences between these three elements. Let’s get rid of doubts by the hand of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

This is the definition of a storm according to the WMO: “one or more sudden discharges of electricity manifested by a flash of light (lightning) and a pop or a thud (thunder). Thunderstorms are associated with cumulonimbus clouds and they are usually accompanied by precipitation that, when it reaches the ground, does so in the form of a shower of rain, snow, granulated snow, sleet [temporary rain and very fine snow] or hail”.

Now let’s go by parts:

“Lightning is an almost instantaneous phenomenon that affects a very small area,” explain the authors of the study Climatology of electrical discharges and stormy days in Spain, from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET). It is a powerful natural discharge of electricity that forms between clouds or from a cloud to the ground, being the origin of lightning and thunder.

There are several types of rays:

As a curiosity, throughout the world around 44 lightning strikes occur every second, mainly in terrestrial areas and in intertropical areas, although less than half impact the earth’s surface. Every year thousands of people are struck down by lightning.

“Luminous manifestation that accompanies a sudden electrical discharge that occurs from within a cloud or, less frequently, from structures high above the ground or mountains,” explains the WMO.

Lightning is that brief splendor that occurs in the cloud and partially illuminates the sky for an instant. It occurs when the electromagnetic pulse is so strong that it ionizes the air in its path. Unlike lightning, lightning does not reach the ground.

Thunder is the dry, violent noise or rumble that accompanies lightning. The World Meteorological Organization details that “when the ground discharge occurs in a very close place, it can often be distinguished, before the final dry boom, a short sound similar to that of a tearing paper followed by a second similar sound to the word ‘vit'”. If we are further away (up to 20 kilometers), thunder is heard as a muffled rumble, a prolonged rumble that varies in intensity.

The difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound causes lightning to be seen before the corresponding thunder is heard. The time interval increases as the distance between the place of electric discharge and the observer increases.

Antonio Ruiz de Elvira, professor of Applied Physics at the University of Alcalá de Henares, already explained in this article in EL MUNDO the formation of lightning bolts:

“The air and water molecules, and the microscopic globules of the latter, rub against each other as they go up. They remove electrons from each other so that ‘cloud’ volumes with positive and negative charges are generated: as in a car battery, the potential difference between two different areas of space increases. The potential difference measures the force necessary for the electric charges to move. They are subjected to two forces: The one that tries to get them together, and the one that the neutral molecules that try to prevent it. When the potential difference is large enough, the first force wins over the second and a spark occurs. But the spark changes the neutral molecules into charged molecules that allow the advance of the former. again an emergent phenomenon: The same spark changes the situation to be able to propagate from one side of the cloud to the other or from above to the ground: We have lightning and thunderbolts”.

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