Summer lightning (or, in the US, "heat lightning") is nothing more than the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon or other clouds from distant thunderstorms. Summer lightning was named because it often occurs on hot summer nights. Summer lightning can be an early warning sign that thunderstorms are approaching. In coastal areas, summer lightning is often seen out over the water at night, the remnants of storms that formed during the day along a sea breeze front coming in from the opposite coast.
Some cases of "summer lightning" can be explained by the refraction of light or sound by bodies of air with different densities. An observer may see nearby lightning, but the sound from the discharge is refracted over his head by a change in the temperature, and therefore the density, of the air around him. As a result, the lightning discharge appears to be silent.
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