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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The thunder isn’t created at a single point. When lightning strikes, it moves in a path and thunder is created along that path. What were hearing is the pressure wave created by a bunch of air heating up really fast.
Now yes, all of that thunder is going to travel at approximately the same speed, but it isn’t all going to travel the same distance. Let’s say a lightning bolt goes from could to ground in a vertical line and it’s close enough that we don’t need to worry about the curve of the earth. The sound from where the lightning hits the ground is going to get to you before the from where the lightning came from the cloud because it’s further away. Combine this with all the branches lightning can creat or cloud to cloud lightning that may be moving towards or away from you, and you get a large array of ways thunder can sound to an observer.
[This video](https://youtu.be/5liPK64MAeY) does a pretty good job explaining it. He sets up multiple explosives to go off at different times and different distances to make one loud boom in the front, various booms with appropriate timing from the side, and various booms that are much further apart from behind
And then you also have echos so you hear the same waves again, and then changes in air conditions between you and the lighting, which changes the speed of sound and changes the shape of the wave front adding to the complexity even more
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