why does thunder and lightning occur more in summer than winter?
348314
warm air and cold air combine to make storms... in the winter there is less warm air
969310
They're simultaneous.  Thunder is the noise made by the lightning.  You may experience the two at different times (always thunder second) because light waves and sound waves travel at different speeds.  They actually occur at the same time, your perception of them causes the distinction.
439061
Lightning is electricity. When the clouds build up too much electrons and the voltage between the cloud and the ground is great enough to cause air to break down and conduct, you get lighting. Its like a spark.
224271
Hello,\nLightening is caused due to the build up of electrons in the upper layers of the clouds during a storm. These electrons are attracted towards the positive potential of the earth, but the air gives a stiff resistance and does not allow the electricity to pass through. But when a huge potential has been accumulated, the electricity forces its way through the air molecules. This causes a lot of friction and hence releases heat energy. A tremendous amount of heat energy. This causes the air molecules to vibrate and this produces the cracking sound known as thunder. Thunder rattles the windows if it is loud enough. Sound is just the air particles vibrating and when the vibrating air molecules hit the window, they cause it to rattle. Lightning usually strikes the highest point and the most positively charged area. This is becuz lightning looks for the easiest way out of air. A high place means it has to travel less distance...
616034
No. The enormous amount of heat produced by lightning expands air suddenly, causing the sound we refer to as thunder. The reason we don't always hear thunder (right away) is because light travels faster than sound. We don't always hear that sound because it might be very far away, but we still see the light.
1002494
It's not closer to the earth in Winter.  It's closer in summer.
758299
Yes, I have noticed the same thing.  It tends to get cold in the winter and hot in the summer, with spring and fall being cooler than summer and warmer than winter.  At night it tends to get dark and in the day it is light, except in winter there is less dark and in the summer there is more light.  \n\nI have learned this based on years of careful observation at various times of the year.\n\nToday I also learned to tie my own shoelaces.
531721
A Center for Disease Control report found that the threat of lightning strikes increases with the amount of time spent outdoors.  Another report in the Journal of Environmental Health found that a greater number of lightning strikes occur in work related activities.  The industries with the highest number of lightning strikes were agriculture and construction, fields of work dominated by males.\n\nThis would seem to indicate that there is less of a biological reason for men being hit by lightning more often and more of a social reason.  Men tend to have outdoor jobs at a much higher percentage than women and thus are more likely to be in a position to be hit by lightning.
632325
When it is dark, your brain and body think it is night time. If it gets all datk and rainy in the day, your body doesn't understand because it associates dark with sleep. Also, I think the sound of thunder and rain hitting the windows is really relaxing. And there is the thing about the sun. Some people have that Seasonal Affective Disorder thingymejig which makes them depressed in the winter because sunshine makes you happy.
38974
The real reason why there are more insects in the summer than the winter is because the summer provides an ideal environment for eggs to hatch.  Hot muggy conditions provide moisture and is more conducive for procreation.  The mortality rate of insects also is less because of these ideal living conditions "assuming all other factors being equal" therefore we find more insect during the Summer period versus the winter
222480
Thundersnow is a particularly rare meteorological phenomenon that includes the typical behavior of a thunderstorm, but with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain.\n\nThere are usually two forms of thundersnow:\n\nA normal thunderstorm on the leading edge of a cold front that passes over a colder body of water (with subsequently colder air around it) which in turn maintains the precipitation as snow. \nA heavy snowstorm that catches a warm draft of air which allows favorable conditions for lightning and thunder to occur. \nOne unique aspect of thundersnow is that the snowfall acts as an acoustic suppressor of the thunder. The thunder from a typical thunderstorm can be heard many kilometres away, while the thunder from thundersnow can usually only be heard within a two to three kilometer radius from the lightning.\n\nThundersnow, while rare anywhere, is more common with lake-effect snows in the Great Lakes area of the United States and Canada, the midwestern U.S., the Great Salt Lake, and has also been reported around the Sea of Japan and even around Mount Everest during expeditions. When such storms happen at ski areas, the mountain is often evacuated for safety.\n\nThundersnow was reported in metro Atlanta during the Great Blizzard of 1993, and in greater New York (and other areas) during the Blizzard of 2006. During a thundersnow event in late March 1997, lightning struck the main ski lift at the Angelfire Resort in Angelfire, New Mexico after closing time. This caused no injuries, but damaged the only lift providing access to and from the operating part of the mountain. Large snow pellets were also reported from this storm.
1136224
Thunderstorms are more common in warmer, more humid, areas. So think about all the warm humid areas and you will find more thunderstorms during the summer. California is a little different because it has a cold water current right off the coast that causes thunderstorms to be less frequent and less severe.
7774
Thunder / lightning is caused when a cold front and a warm front come together.  More info on lightning can be found here:\nhttp://www.insuremyhouse.com/lightning.html
503525
Lightning is formed by the convective processes that occur in a thunderstorm.  You'll have the warm, moist suface layer of air with the cold, dry layer of air aloft.  The natural balance of the atmosphere makes the warm air want to rise.  This gives strong updrafts of air can help create charge differences (warm humid surface air rises and cools, condenses into waterdroplets which have different charge the ice crystals in the upper atmosphere) which can cause lightning.\n\nIn a snowstorm (or winter in general) the surface layer is cold with low dewpoints (dry), so you generally won't find these updrafts and convection found in summer thunderstorms to create lightning.\n\nHowever sometimes the conditions can bring enough warmer air, moisture and instability to cause lightning and thunder.  Check out the link provided for more in depth details.\n\nThe thunder from thundersnow is not heard at very large distances, which makes it seem even rarer.  Snow absorbs a lot of the sound, so it will only be heard about a mile or two away.
1062174
Summer because the sun shines out more, and there is more daylight.  Plus it's warmer.
199333
It's part of the design. Don't worry about hitting by lightning where there are storms. Because lightning hit the highest peak of the terrain.\nI'll give you an example to clarify it. If you're walking in the rice field with your umbrella, you are likely to be hit because you are the highest peak compare to your surrounding. But if you're walking in a forest, you are not likely to be hit because there are trees much higher/taller than you.
400449
Thunder is the explosive sound produced by an ordinary lightning discharge. The lightning bolt heats the air around it so quickly (within a few millionths of a second) and to such a high temperature (about 10,000° C, or about 18,000° F) that the air molecules are pushed apart with great force, much like in an explosion. A wave of compressed air (a sound wave) moves out from the lightning bolt.