Why Does Lightning Always Come Before Thunder?

During a storm, there is a discrepancy between areas of air between regions of warm and cold. This causes frictional forces to build up, which sometimes creates an electrical spark. This is lightning.


At the same time, sound energy is produced by the friction between the different regions of air. This is heard a few seconds later as a clap of thunder. Thunder always follows along a little later because light travels faster than sound.

The speed of light in air is 299,792,458 metres per second (or 1,079,252,848.8 km h-1). The speed of sound in air is At sea level, at a temperature of 15 C (59  F) and under normal atmospheric conditions  is 340 m s-1 (1225 km h-1or 761 mph).

The electrical discharge created by a bolt of lightning can be very destructive and it can kill. When caught outside in a storm, it is a good idea not to act as a lightning conductor ~ crouch down away from trees at the bottom of a slope if there is no shelter. But there is no need to cover your ears ~ the thunder is completely harmless.

The reason that you see lightning before you hear the thunder is that light travels at a greater speed then sound.

Because light travels much faster than sound. The two are simultaneous but you see the light before you hear the thunder.

Because light travels faster than sound

Light travels faster than sound, which means you will see the lightning before the thunder

Lighting goes before thunder because the light waves travel faster than sound waves

Because light travels faster than sound.

Because the lightning holds so much power that it turns that part of air into nothing.  Since there is nothing air rushes into that nothing and creates a sonic boom

The lightning comes before thunder because light is as fast as a flash and sound takes afyew seconds.

Because light travels faster that sound and that is why lighting comes before thunder.

Because light travels faster than sound, the second lightning passes the sound barrier there is a sonic boom, or thunder, therefore proving that thunder is a factor of lightning. Without lightning there is no thunder.

But that was just an explanation the answer is that because light is most probably one of the most fastest things in the world so it comes first

Light travels faster than sound