Free Thunder Sound Effect
The thunder sound effect: a sharp crack and a long rolling rumble. Plus a close strike, far-off thunder and a storm with rain. Dramatic weather, indoors.
Updated · Tested by the Facecam team
Thunder
4.0 s · MP3 · 39 KB
Play it into your mic
Your browser will ask for microphone access when you click.
4 thunder sound effects to download
Main take4.0 s · 39 KB
The thunder sound effect: a sharp crack and a long rolling rumble. Plus a close strike, far-off thunder and a storm with rain. Dramatic weather, indoors.
Close crack1.7 s · 17 KB
A sharp crack right overhead.
Distant3.9 s · 38 KB
A far-off rolling rumble.
With rain5.0 s · 49 KB
Thunder over heavy rain.
Where it fits
- Starting a ghost story: "It was a dark and stormy night".
- A villain's entrance on a roleplay or VTuber stream.
- Dramatic emphasis after someone makes a bold claim.
- Rain-and-thunder background for a study, sleep or ambience video.
Related sounds
- Wolf howl3.4 s
- Creaky door2.9 s
- Midnight bell4.0 s
- Explosion3.0 s
- Ghost moan3.0 s
How we made it
“A loud thunder crack followed by a long rolling rumble”
The variations
- Close crack
- “A sharp very close thunder crack, sudden”
- Distant
- “Distant rolling thunder rumble far away”
- With rain
- “Thunder rumbling with heavy rain falling”
- Loudness
- -16.4 LUFS
- Peak
- -4.3 dBFS
On these boards
Play it in Discord, OBS or Zoom
Press Use these sounds in calls, then pick Facecam Virtual Mic as your mic. Step by step: Discord, OBS and Zoom. For games, the Facecam desktop app.
- Short enough for Discord's own soundboard (5.2 s max): Server Settings → Soundboard.
More about this sound
About our version
Ours lasts 3.96 seconds: the crack up front and a rumble that rolls away. It's on the Halloween and scary boards, generated from a description.
The other takes change the distance: Close crack is a sudden 1.7-second strike right overhead, Distant is a low rumble far away, and With rain is five seconds of thunder over heavy rainfall.
Thunder is mostly low rumble, so it sounds bigger on headphones than on a laptop.
Crack or rumble: why thunder sounds different
Thunder is air heated by lightning expanding all at once. Close by, the whole shock wave reaches you together: a crack. From farther off, sound from different parts of the bolt arrives at different times and the land echoes it, so it stretches into a long roll. Count the seconds between the flash and the thunder and divide by five: that's roughly how many miles away the strike was.
Questions
Is there thunder with rain?
Yes: With rain is five seconds of thunder over heavy rain. For a longer storm, loop it in your editor or press the pad every few seconds while you talk.
Can I use it in a sleep or ambience video?
Yes. Download the distant or the rain take and loop it; both are free to use in monetized videos.
What pairs well with it?
The evil laugh right after, or the wolf howl and the midnight bell for Halloween.
