Is there a relationship between hearing thunder, seeing lightning, and knowing how close/far away a storm is?

The lightning travels at the speed of light, but the sound it makes (the sound of air molecules expanding in the intense heat) or thunder travels at the speed of sound and is therefore delayed. General rule of thumb is to count the seconds between sight and sound, and your answer will be approximate miles from storm

Under normal conditions, sound travels at about 1100 feet per second. Therefore if you see a flash of lightning and then count the number of seconds before you hear the thunder. Now just multiply the number of seconds by 1100 ft, you will know approximately how far the storm is away from you.

absolutely. light travels faster than sound, so the bang you hear is the air closing together after the lighting rips through it. when they seem to have a delay, it is because the storm is farther away so the sound takes longer to reach you. sort of like if you see someone a block away bouncing a basketball but the sound happens after. when they lighting flashes right with the thunder, you are very close to the storm.

Rule of thumb for rough estimate.... if you count from 1001 to 1003 between the flash and the time you hear thunder.... storm center is aprox. 1 mile away from you. 1001 to 1005 is aprox # miles away. Based on the difference between light travel and sound travel.

Whenever I see a lightning flash I instictively start counting: "one thousand and one... one thousand and two ... one thousand and three ... and I know that one thousand and four is approximately one mile away. Counting this way tells me how far the storm is and the next flash I see and count will clue me if the storm is headed my way.

Distance = Rate x Time

first, you see the lightning, since speed of light is faster than speed of sound, then you hear it, since sound travels slower than light.

My pa always told me 1 mississippi = 1 mile, if this is true or not, i'm sure someone wil say,