Ask the meteorologist: Why do storms sound louder at night?

Headline photo by Christine Scott: Youngsville

If you're like me, you're thankful for the rain. However, I could do without being woken up in the middle of the night by storms. 

(I'm sure if you're a dog owner, you can relate to that even more.)

Estimates from Vaisala and the Iowa State Environmental Mesonet show nearly 80,000 lightning strikes within the last two days in North Carolina. 

The atmosphere has been ripe for thunderstorms in recent days.

The air has been exceptionally humid, and a front nearby has been lifting that moist air to create tall storms. The electrical difference generated from building cumulonimbus clouds is enough to create lightning - and a lot of it.

Your pictures have captured not just the lightning strikes, but the subsequent damage we can sometimes see. 

Send your pictures and videos safely to ReportIt here!

We even caught the moment that lightning struck the WRAL Mix-FM tower Monday.

Thunderstorms are loud creatures. There's just no getting around that.

Lightning can get as hot as 50,000°F. The explosion that results from lightning is thunder, and yes, it is quite loud.

At night, however, it can seem louder. Now, part of that is the shock factor that comes from being woken up by something loud. Another part of that comes down to atmospheric science. 

Oftentimes at night, the air a few thousand feet above is warmer than the surface. It's a role reversal compared to the day, called a temperature inversion. 

When there's an inversion, storms originate in that warm layer (not at the surface like in the daytime). When lightning strikes and thunder booms, that layer of warmth above will trap the air at the surface. 

This can result in louder sounds and foul smells some nights and mornings.

It can also result in quite the rude awakening, despite the fact that rain has been a welcomed sight.

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