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Why thunder is louder when it's cold!

Cold air will make the thunder sound louder and echo farther.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — After several cold and wet days, one more round of rain is on the way to the Triad tonight before a brief break with some clearing on Tuesday and sun on Wednesday.

Tonight, mainly from about 9 PM - 1 AM rain will move in, and some will be heavy or even torrential at times. At the same time, we'll have some warmer air moving in over our cold air. In meteorology, we call that set up "overrunning" and it can actually increase the instability of the atmosphere or create some thunderstorm "fuel" which will make a few thunderstorms possible as this batch of rain moves through.

We'll still be cold here at the surface, meaning a temperature inversion will be setting up. What is an inversion? 

Credit: WFMY
Under a temperature inversion, sound waves can bounce back and forth between the ground and the layer of warm air atop of the inversion and make things like thunder sound louder.

Typically,  the temperature gets cooler as altitude increases, but in an inversion, the temperature rises for a period before it reverses and cools again, so a layer of cold air is stuck next to the ground. In an inversion, things like thunder, booms, or even car crashes can sound louder as sound waves get trapped and bounce back and forth in that layer of cold air.

We're not expecting any severe or damaging storms, but the thunder may wake you up or excite the dogs tonight around or just after bed time.

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