Elaine Anderson, age 13., of Cedar own, Ga., for her question;

What is thunder?

Thunder is an explosion of air. It happens when weather conditions build up an electric storm. The winds in such a cloud area are wild and furious, whirling up and down and in every direction. This turbulence is what generates the electricity in the mass of air above the ground. And the electricity causes the thunder.

The storm area builds up until it becomes overloaded with electricity. The electricity must be discharged. This is done through a bolt of lightning, Lightning is a massive discharge of electricity from the overloaded cloud. It is scorching hot and it cuts a blazing path through the heavy, damp air.

The air resists the path of lightning. Only a slender slice of air through the cloud becomes heated by the lightning. This slice of air, like all warm air, must expand. It has no place to go, since it is boxed in by the cool, damp, resisting air of the cloud. There is only one thing it can do. It can explode. And this is exactly what it does ‑ it explodes with a rumbling roar which we call the thunder.