lightning causes thunder. lightning happens instantaneously, but thunder (at a distance) sounds like it’s coming, then it claps, then fades away. this don’t make no damn sense given that light and sound move at fixed rates.
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Quite simply a lightning strike is very large. It isn’t one single source of sound, but causes by a very long extended source.
The strike can be hundreds of yards long.
Let’s take the largest “rolling thunder” scenario:
If a strike is horizontal (cloud to cloud), and long, and pointed in your direction, you’ll hear the thunder from the point closest to you first, then points further and further away.
You’ll get a long roll of thunder as the sound travels to you, each moment having traveled a larger distance.
Now if the strike is short, and pointed perpendicular to you (either right/left or cloud to ground) then most of the sound vibes from one general region. You’ll hear a shorter more intense clap of thunder.
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