Eli5: Please explain lightning and thunder.
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Lightning: at some point, there’s an enormous buildup of electromagnetic potential between the atmosphere/clouds and the ground below. The clouds are picking up more and more negative charge, which is desperate to dissipate itself by moving into some positively charged space or body. But open air isn’t the best conductor of that energy, so the charge in the clouds continues to build to a critical level at which point it essentially forces itself down into the ground through some path of minimal resistance in the air. This requires (and releases) a tremendous amount of energy, which superheats the narrow sliver of air through which this electricity passes. That’s what you see, and that’s where the thunder comes in.
Thunder: The column of air through which the lightning passes expands dramatically in a short instant, and the surrounding cool air rushes in to fill the pressure differential. This shock of expansion and contraction displaces a LOT of air in a fraction of a second, and that is what you’re hearing.
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