Heat lightning is the name used for the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon or other clouds from distant thunderstorms that do not have accompanying sounds of thunder. This occurs because the lightning occurs very far away and the sound waves dissipate before they reach the observer. Heat lightning was named because it often occurs on hot summer nights and to distinguish it from lightning accompanied by audible thunder and cooling rainfall at the point of observation. Lightning results from the discharge of negative ions created from the friction of ice and water particles bumping into each other at the bottom of a cloud. Heat lightning can be an early warning sign that thunderstorms are approaching. In Florida, heat lightning is often seen out over the water at night, the remnants of storms that formed during the day along a sea breeze front coming in from the opposite coast.
Read more about Heat Lightning: Atmosphere, Curvature, Under Optimum Conditions, Silent Lightning
Famous quotes containing the words heat and/or lightning:
“As in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;”
—Robert Southwell (1561?–1595)
“How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death: O, how may I
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquered; beauty’s ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)