This is called rectification, and rectifier diodes are most commonly used in low current power supplies. A switching diode is most often used to turn a circuit on or off, and band switching diodes are used for switching high frequency band signals.
Thunder occurs when energy from lightning heats and rapidly expands the air. The resulting sound wave gets heard as thunder. While lightning and thunder occur at roughly the same time, lightning travels at the speed of light, or at 186,000 miles a second, while thunder travels at the speed of sound, equivalent to one-fifth of a mile in one second. People see the lightning long before they hear the thunder.
Normally, however, the result is rain, wind, lightning, and thunder. Without lightning, there would be no thunder in thunderstorm.. Thunder is the noise lightning makes as it travels through the air. Lightning occurs during all thunderstorms (though not every time it rains). During a storm, it strikes Earth 100 times each second. More than just a dazzling light show, lightning causes billions of dollars in damage each year. Lightning forms when updrafts of air carry water droplets, which have a charge, upward to heights where some freeze into ice and snow particles. They form a cloud.