"The Legend of Heat Lightning"


Right after Hurricane Isabel went through a co-worker and I talked about different elements of storms. She told me that she heard on NBC 10 that Heat Lightning was actually a myth. Now I have always been told that in the summer time since there is so much enery in the air "heat ligtning" is produced and bolts jump from cloud to could, and no thunder is produced. I whitnessed this one time for hours at my aunts house in Avalon. My cousin and I sat out and watched it over the ocean and it was quite dazzlying over the ocean. Well since I am a huge dork I decided to e-mail Fox 29 (WTXF) weatherman Rob Guarino who recently got back to me and he had this to say:


"Heat lightning is an urban legend so to
speak. Heat lighting is just lightining in the
distance with no thunder. People think it's because of
the heat and yeah it is, it's summer afterall when they
hit.

You cannot hear thunder if a storm is more than 15
miles away and sometimes in urban areas as little as 3
miles away. I hope this answers your question."

-Rob