Is Heat Lightning A Type Of Lightning Or Folklore?

As long as I have been alive I have heard Michiganders refer to lightning flashes off in the distance as "Heat Lightning" but is this a fact or fiction?

Lightning

We have all seen lightning. You may have seen some in the last 24 hours from thunderstorms we had.

Not to get too sciencey, but lightning is a natural phenomenon formed by electrostatic discharges through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. The two can be in the atmosphere, or one in the atmosphere and one on the ground.

It's pretty easy during a clear day to see storm clouds off in the distance and know there is a storm brewing. You might even be able to see the rain falling in the distance even though it is clear and not raining where you are.

On those hot summer nights when it's clear and stars are above, you might see flashes off in the distance. Those flashes have often been referred to as heat lightning but is that specific type of lightning?

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Is Heat Lightning Fact of Fiction?

Ever since I was a kid I have heard people say when you see a flash off in the distance it was heat lightning. My childhood friend told me that so I went with it. He didn't just tell me that, I heard adults say it too. It is not just a Michigan thing because when I was a kid visiting family in Kentucky I would see flashes off in the distance and my cousins would say oh that is heat lightning.

Unfortunately, many of us in society got this one wrong. There is no such thing as heat lightning, it is just a storm that is so far away we cannot make out the lightning and only see the flash. Those hot clear nights in the summer are when we usually see those flashes and have referred to it as heat lightning.

I would like to take credit for debunking the "Heat Lightning" myth but I have to leave that to the pros, the National Weather Service. If you click that link you will see how mountains, hills, trees, or curvature of the earth prevent us from seeing the actual lightning bolt since it is so far away so we see a flash.