heat lightning

noun

1. lightning too distant for thunder to be heard, observed as diffuse flashes near the horizon on summer evenings.

heat lightning

noun

1. flashes of light seen near the horizon, esp on hot evenings: reflections of more distant lightning

heat lightning

1. Intermittent flashes of reddish or orange light near the horizon, usually seen on a hot summer evening and unaccompanied by thunder. Heat lightning is thought to be the reflection of distant lightning on clouds. Its color is believed to be due to the refraction of light in the atmosphere.

2. See also sheet lightning See more at lightning

Word History and Origins

Origin of heat lightning¹

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

She recalled certain images: heat lightning traveling from cloud to cloud, tall grasses, gas flares on the horizon, droves of red-winged blackbirds.

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Extremely dry ground and hotter than average temperatures, combined with heat lightning and strong winds, have caused the fires to spread aggressively.

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The afternoon clouds look like mountain ranges, enhancing the lush Irish topography, and later there is heat lightning in the distance, which lights up the horizon like an old projector.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Your fingers slip into routines, digital rituals encoded by childhood habits, neural pathways waking like heat lightning blinking through cumulonimbus clouds.

Read more on Time

It must have been a burst of heat lightning, he thought, reflecting off the low clouds.

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