heat lightning

noun

Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lightning).

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Meanings

nounheat lightning (uncountable)
  1. uncountableLightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lightning).

    The beginning of a watery diarrheal event is said to be marked by a great deal of noise, characterized as […] rumbling (tzilelet 'rumbling sound of heat lightning in the rainy season'), […]

    2015 March 8, Elois Ann Berlin, Brent Berlin, Medical Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: The Gastrointestinal Diseases, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 98
    1 more example

    Joel Brinkley, a schoolteacher, who was a child in the 1950s, recalled a similar feeling during this era: "It seems surreal now. Every summer, when I heard heat lightning over the city and the sky would light up, I was convinced it was all over. My whole childhood was built on the notion that the Soviets were the real threat."

    2015 February 9, Hajimu Masuda, Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 86
    1. uncountableVisible lightning that occurs too far away for the resulting thunder to be audible by the observer.
      1 more example

      The typical range at which thunder can be heard is around 24 km [...] Often, people mistakenly call lightning whose thunder is too far away to be heard "heat lightning," suggesting that the lightning somehow owes its existence merely to the heat of the day and not to a thunderstorm. Nonsense. "Heat lightning" is simply distant lightning whose thunder cannot be heard.

      2001, Lee M. Grenci, Jon M. Nese, A World of Weather: Fundamentals of Meteorology: a Text/ Laboratory Manual, Kendall Hunt, →ISBN, page 205
    2. uncommonuncountableThunder that is heard without lightning being seen by the observer; heat thunder.

      Our windows were open, and inside the wind and rumble of heat lightning, I could hear Albert's horses nickering in the darkness.

      2008 July 8, James Lee Burke, Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 307
      1 more example

      THE RAIN FINALLY CAME FROM THE DARK GREY SKIES, SOFT AND TEMPTING AT FIRST, WITH THE SOUND OF HEAT LIGHTNING HOVERING OVER THE SKYSCRAPERS! [image is of a city being rained on, no lightning visible]

      2019 September 3, William Dubay, Don McGregor, Bud Lewis, Eerie Archives Volume 27, Dark Horse Books, →ISBN, page 229

Origin

So called because it is common on hot summer nights and is sometimes popularly thought to be caused by heat rather storms.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan llampó
  • llampóheat lightning
Danish kornmod
  • kornmodheat lightning
Dutch weerlicht
  • weerlichtheat lightning
Finnish elosalama
  • elosalamaheat lightning
German Wetterleuchten
  • Wetterleuchtenheat lightning
Icelandic eldingarbjarmi
  • eldingarbjarmiheat lightning
Russian зарни́ца
  • зарни́ца (zarníca)heat lightning
Swedish kornblixt
  • kornblixtheat lightning
Cite this entry
APA

heat lightning. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heat%20lightning

MLA

“heat lightning.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heat%20lightning. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “heat lightning,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heat%20lightning.

Source: heat lightning on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.