Silent Lightning
Silent lightning also occurs where airborne matter muffles the thunder, such as heavy snow in winter storms (thundersnow) and dust and sand storms. In some instances, heavy falling snow has silenced thunder from cloud to ground lightning strikes as close as one to two miles (1.6 to 3.2 km) from the observer and severe dust storms are even more effective in many cases.
Read more about this topic: Heat Lightning
Famous quotes containing the words silent and/or lightning:
“A puff of wind, a puff faint and tepid and laden with strange odours of blossoms, of aromatic wood, comes out the still night—the first sigh of the East on my face. That I can never forget. It was impalpable and enslaving, like a charm, like a whispered promise of mysterious delight.... The mysterious East faced me, perfumed like a flower, silent like death, dark like a grave.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“When the cross blue lightning seemed to open
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)