Jasmine: Hi, l'm Jasmine.
Chrissy: I'm Chrissy.
Jasmine: We're from NIU STEAM and...
Chrissy: You're listening to The Sound of Science on WNIJ.
Forest [pre-recorded]: My name is Forest and I've always wondered why there's thunder but no rain?
Chrissy: Thanks for asking, Forestl We love to hear the questions brought to us by our youngest STEAM fans!
Jasmine: We have learned that heat energy causes matter to expand and the lack of heat energy causes matter to contract. When lightning flashes, the air around the bolts becomes super-heated to temperatures as high as 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heated air expands rapidly causing a pressure wave which we perceive as the sound of thunder.
Chrissy: In an amazing phenomenon, volcanic eruptions can also generate lightning without rain. When a volcano erupts fragments of rock and dust are thrown into the atmosphere and collisions from these particles are enough to cause static charges to build up. Lightning occurs when the static is discharged and thunder results.
Jasmine: Cloud-to-cloud lightning occurs within clouds and can happen without the presence of rain. Last month on The Sound of Science, we learned that there only needs to be a difference in charges across two or more clouds in order to produce lightning. If the clouds involved aren't super saturated with water, the thunder shockwave can occur without evidence of rain.
Chrissy: Though rain bearing thunderstorms are very typical, there are also dry thunderstorms which produce lightning and thunder but little-to-no rain, usually because of evaporation.
Jasmine: The sound of thunder has the potential to travel 10 miles in any direction ahead of a storm and in ideal conditions, with flat land and few obstructions, can travel up to 20 miles. Sometimes, it's just a matter of the thunder reaching us before the storm does.
Chrissy: You have been listening to The Sound of Science on WNIJ, where you learn something new every day.
