the.com/heatlightning
a thunderstorm flashing hello from so far away its thunder never arrives
means distant lightning seen as silent flashes on the horizon, where the storm is too far off for its thunder to reach you.
from A plain English compound of "heat" and "lightning," named for the warm, still summer nights when such flickering is most often noticed. The popular story is that it's lightning caused by heat with no storm at all — but really it's ordinary thunderstorm lightning happening far over the horizon, the thunder lost to distance and the curve of the earth, the flash bouncing off high clouds to reach your eye anyway.
- not real
- Just distant lightning too far to hear thunder
- the limit
- Thunder rarely travels past ten miles
- over horizon
- Earth's curve hides the storm, shows the flash
- summer name
- Named for warm nights when it appears
- color shift
- Distance and air can tint flashes orange or red
for instance
heat lightning — distant lightning from thunderstorms beyond the horizon, visible on hot summer nights but with no audible thunder