The speed of sound in air is about 330 metres per second (which means it takes three seconds to go one kilometre). So count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder, divide by three, and you have approximately your range from the lightning in kilometres. (Divide by five for miles). So, the lightning that struck about 4pm yesterday, which took at most I’d say quarter of a second between sight and sound, would be 0.25 divided by 3 which comes to awfully close.
I can’t say I’ve ever heard a bomb going off, but I reckon that sound must have been like it.
For more on my opinion of thunderstorms, click here