So a high pressure and a low pressure area come together. They don't get along, having different views over politics and the what-not. If the high is high enough and the low is low enough, then sparks will soon be flying.
I've always thought of thunder as the sound of the sky ripping. I imagine that when faster-than-light space travel is eventually invented and engineered, there will be a similar sound, but not hearable in space. It's one of those does-a-tree-falling-make-a-sound-if-noone-is-around-to-hear-it, kind of things. But, I know that thunder is not really the sound of the sky ripping, it's more like the sky grinding.
I'm not a meteorologist (oh, wish that I were), so I reserve the right to be completely wrong in my understanding of weather in general and thunder and lightning in particular. For that matter, consider this my caveat emptor. I'm not anything important, so I reserve the right to be wrong about everything. But, that's not going to stop me from writing about it.
I kind of imagine thunderstorms to be analogous to plate tectonics. Air masses bumb against each other, if they are similar enough, there is not a definite border, but if one is hot and the other cold, or one is high pressure and the other low, they bump into each other and act in an analogous way to land masses. When they're pushing on each other and one of them, or both of them finally gives, the ensuing friction is what causes the thunder and the lightning.
I've always considered thunder to be the base effect in the air wars. I've never necessarily felt that thunder caused lightning, or that lightning caused thunder, but rather that they were both children of the same beast.
Lightning is all cool and everything, but thunder is where it's at. I'll give lightning that it looks spectacular, but thunder can shake your fillings out. But, in some ways it's almost like a gentle mosnter - you've never heard of anyone being struck by thunder.
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