Thunder - distinguishing from varying intensities of cracks and rumbles

[Bayum]

Despise thunderstorms, scare the bejesus outta me, so much so that in summertime I would wilfully emigrate somewhere less likely to have storms over six months.

One thing I have always wondered, however, is the intensity of the cracks and rumbles of thunder - what affects this? In the first thirty seconds of this video there is a massive what I’d call ‘crack’, almost like a ripping sound next to the ear.

Now, I’ve seldom experienced this in the UK. Why is that?

So two questions I guess.
1) Is the sound created by lightning rated in intensity, i.e. from the crack heard in the video to the low rumbles you may hear?
2) Are certain places more likely to experience these sounds more than others, or does it just depend on how close you are to the strongest lightning bolt?

 

[TrafficEng]

So two questions I guess.
1) Is the sound created by lightning rated in intensity, i.e. from the crack heard in the video to the low rumbles you may hear?
2) Are certain places more likely to experience these sounds more than others, or does it just depend on how close you are to the strongest lightning bolt?

The answer to 2 is that the intensity of the sound (and what it sounds like) are a function of the distance from the strike. The closer you are the louder and shorter the sound - hence a 'crack' rather than a rumble. Further away the sound intensity has reduced (aka attenuated) but is altered by the effect of reflection from surfaces (e.g. ground obstructions or clouds) so what you hear is a series of less intense sound pulses arriving at slightly different times which is the rumble effect.

The nest time a storm is on the way it is worth looking at this site, but change the 'thunder' option to max. https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#

That shows the approximate location of the strike, but then shows an approximation of the sound front as it radiates out. If you listen as you watch it becomes clear how the sound and distance are linked.

Also, once you know more about what is going on it becomes a bit less scary.

 

[John Webb]

The other factor is whether the lightning strike is 'cloud to cloud' or 'cloud to ground'. The latter can be much closer to ground observers than the former, and will produce much more of a crack if it strikes nearby. From (fortunately) limited observation I would say that a ground lightning strike within a mile or less will predominate as a crack while further away it will start to be echoed around and become less of a crack and be followed by more 'rumbles'.