Crisp sharp clicks indicate lightning relatively close by. When such clicks get very strong, and especially if they are accompanied by sizzling, frying sounds, it might be time to stop listening, ground everything and prepare for a thunderstorm !
By the time lightning static has traveled a few hundred miles its sound is less distinct. As distance from the listener grows, the received strength of each impulse decreases, while the number of events of similar magnitude increases. More and more signals of smaller and smaller magnitude blend into a fluctuating background texture. Foreground and background interpenetrate in complex, subtle rhythms that never quite repeat.
Layers of tweeks may thread their way through the clicks and crackles. And sometimes, when least expected, a whistler may come howling through like a voice from another world.
