Loudest Thunder

[Ptarmigan]

What is the loudest thunder you ever heard? For me, the loudest thunders I have heard were late at night, while I am asleep.

I remember this one middle of the night storm on September 19, 1996. There was a storm northwest of Houston, which was forecasted to be weakened. Of course, it turned out it strengthened as it moved over Houston. I heard a really loud clap of thunder, the loudest I have heard in my life. It kept thundering every second for the next 30 minutes. Than the next thing, dead silence. The strange part was there was little rain falling. That same storm caused flooding in Pasadena.

[Cyclenall]

I can't say any one event stands out but there have been 4-5 times it sounded like my ear drum had blown out from the intense noise. Last year, I was outside watching a normal thunderstorm and the lightening was maybe 100 meters away from me, it looked like a explosion in the sky (it was sky lightning).

[Cyclone1]

That's a tough one.

I've been within 100 or so yards of lightning before. Several times actually. Once while I was on the road lightning hit ground behind me, VERY close. Thunder was deafening.

Still can't beat my dad though, who was hit by lightning. Then again, would you hear the thunder if you were hit by lightning?

Either way, he still wins. Lightning hit a tree bout 20 yards from the house a few years ago, while I wasn't there. He's kinda jinxed when it comes to lightning.

Living in Polk County, Florida, literally the lightning capital of the Western Hemisphere helps I guess.

[Scott Patterson]

I've been shocked (not directly hit) by lightning twice, once On July 4 1987 and once on August 4 1991. Obviously it was quite loud and I've heard many very loud thunderstorms.

[AnnularCane]

We can get some pretty loud thunderstorms in the summer, so it's not easy to say what is the loudest I've heard, but there are a couple of storms that stand out for me. When I was about 14 I was standing on the back porch when there was a sudden crack of thunder, and I remember thinking I had never heard it so loud. My cousin, who was staying with us at the time, was almost struck during that storm.

Another (nighttime) storm some years later was so loud that I practically catapulted out of bed. (I think that was the only thunder I actually heard from that one. )

[Category 5]

I lightning bolt hit in the woods about 30 yards away, I thought something exploded..

[Ptarmigan]

We can get some pretty loud thunderstorms in the summer, so it's not easy to say what is the loudest I've heard, but there are a couple of storms that stand out for me. When I was about 14 I was standing on the back porch when there was a sudden crack of thunder, and I remember thinking I had never heard it so loud. My cousin, who was staying with us at the time, was almost struck during that storm.

Another (nighttime) storm some years later was so loud that I practically catapulted out of bed. (I think that was the only thunder I actually heard from that one. )

Nighttime thunderstorms are louder. They always wake me up at night.

[ohiostorm]

I was outside my house watching an approaching thunderstorm move in from the west. I was standing in my driveway in front of my car. I was trying to take some pictures. All of a sudden I saw a bright white flash. It was almost like time stopped for a second or 2. Then BOOM!!!! I jumped and took off running to the door. I was met by both of my parents who thought I was hit. I was shaking for probably a good 2 hours after that. It was awesome! We found out that it hit one of our trees in our front yard which was about 50 yards or so from me and our TV attenna. It fried the attenna and knocked out our DirecTV boxes and our neighbors garage door motor. The attenna was about 20 ft from me but didn't get the main bolt. More then likely was just a fragment of it that came off the main bolt. We went out to the tree after the storm passed and it blew bark off the tree all the way from the top to the bottom and blew out the ground at the bottom. You could see the black burn mark the whole way down. Was an amazing site. The bark is still missing to this day. This was a good 6 or 7 years ago. We thought for sure the tree would be dead.