When I was younger, I used to ask by parents and grandparents about the strange
lighting that flashed about on
hot summer nights. "Why is there no
thunder?" I'd ask.
This is the answer I always got, "it's heat lightning. It is too hot and lighting is created from the heat, that is why you can't hear the thunder."
Over twelve years later I found out the truth behind heat lightning in my
meteorology class.
There is no such thing as heat lightning. Heat lighting is actually normal lightning from a
nocturnal storm that is so far away, one cannot hear the thunder.