Loudest Thunder You Ever Heard

[Ptarmigan]

What is the loudest thunder you ever heard?

I remember back in September of 1996, which I am sure anyone in Houston will remember, I was asleep and suddenly sometimes after 1:30 AM, I heard a really clap of thunder. It was the loudest thunder I have ever heard and I still remember it. Frankly, I cannot think of anything that matches it. For the next 30 minutes, I kept hearing thunder and seeing lightning every nanosecond. Than afterwards, dead silence. It is strange that after a night time thunderstorm, it is dead silence. I have wondered why. Strange this is, there was very little rain with this storm. However, the same storm dumped heavy rain in Pasadena. The storm I saw in the 10 PM news was forecasted to weaken, which it did. It came from the northwest.

[wxdata]

Loudest thunder I've ever heard was in Santa Fe NM. My family lived on what is now called Upper Canyon Rd. Thunderstorms would move off the mountains overnight and the thunder would echo in the canyon seemingly forever. Literally both my sister and mother were under their beds!

[srainhoutx]

The loudest thunder I've ever heard was while living in the FL Keys. The storms that would often roll in off the Gulf Stream were usually very strong and the thunder would rattle the entire house. Often at night a flash would be followed by an extremely loud and sudden boom. Our dogs to this day are still very afraid of thunder after those experiences.

[wxman57]

I think that the loudness of thunder is primarily dependent on one's proximity to the lightning strike, and thus the origin of the thunder. Secondarily, ambient/background "noise" would be a factor. With less ambient noise at night, a nearby lightning strike would result in thunder that appears louder than the same strike in a noisier daytime environment.

[texoz]

I think that the loudness of thunder is primarily dependent on one's proximity to the lightning strike, and thus the origin of the thunder. Secondarily, ambient/background "noise" would be a factor. With less ambient noise at night, a nearby lightning strike would result in thunder that appears louder than the same strike in a noisier daytime environment.

You've identified the primary factor, proximity, but I'd be curious to know about others such as:
- direction lightening is moving in relation to you
- length of bolt
- intensity (size?) of bolt

I've been around many t-storms in my life and notice that even close strikes can sound quite different from each other. There's even the long, rumbling, building thunder. I'm going to guess this comes from a long lightning bolt?

[Ptarmigan]

I think that the loudness of thunder is primarily dependent on one's proximity to the lightning strike, and thus the origin of the thunder. Secondarily, ambient/background "noise" would be a factor. With less ambient noise at night, a nearby lightning strike would result in thunder that appears louder than the same strike in a noisier daytime environment.

I have seen lightning strike really close by and it is really loud. It also sounds different with a crackling and pop sound mixed with the boom. At night, I can hear distant thunder much better. In the day, rarely that happens. I remember in April of 1997, there were some thunderstorms about 70 miles away and I can hear the thunder, which as at night. It was the flood event that dumped up to 10" of rain fell in Lavaca County.

[wxman57]

The orientation of the bolt could be a factor. Lightning bolts can be very long (20-40 miles or more). A vertical close-in bolt would produce a sharper clap of thunder than a strike from a more distant storm. The more distant the origin of the bolt, the longer the thunder would rumble as sound waves from the various parts of the bolt arrive over a longer time period.

The intensity of the bolt might make a difference, as a bolt with more current/amperage may cause greater heating of the air column and thus a more violent explosion (thunder).

Low-level and general atmospheric humidity levels (absolute, not relative) may be a factor in sound transmission. A strike in a colder airmass may produce thunder that carries better through the more dense airmass.

As someone who used to spend a lot of time chasing storms and photographing lightning, I've been close enough to strikes that my hair stood on end (that's less of a problem now). Fortunately, I was inside my car or inside my house looking out the window for the closest strikes. They were very loud.