SESKStuff Everyone Should Know
SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/lightning-hotter-than-sun

How hot can lightning heat the air around it?

About 50,000°F, 5 times hotter than the sun's surface.

Start playing free

The Just Right card

Too littleAbout as hot as a campfire
Too muchHotter than the center of the sun
Just right5 times hotter than the sun's surface

Huh, didn't know that: When lightning hits a tree, the heat can boil the water inside and blow off a strip of bark.

The dad joke
What's the hottest letter of the alphabet? B, because it makes oil boil.
Like this card?
Play the game

References

Answer: 5 times hotter than the sun's surface. Air is bad at carrying electricity, so lightning heats it up fast, to about 50,000°F. That sudden heat makes the air burst outward, and we hear thunder.

  1. National Weather Service: How Hot Is Lightning? www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-temperature
    lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
    Checked 2026-10-09.
  2. National Weather Service: Understanding Lightning: Thunder www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-science-thunder
    This rapid expansion and contraction creates the sound wave that we hear as thunder.
    Checked 2026-10-09.

Think this answer is wrong? Tap "Challenge this answer" on the card in the game and tell us why.

Test yourself in the game

How Things WorkDoes lightning ever strike the same place twice?How Things WorkYou're inside a hard-topped car in a lightning storm. What protects you?How Things WorkYou see lightning, then count 10 seconds until thunder. About how far away was it?

That's stuff everyone should know.