Definition of "heat lightning" []

• Intermittent flashes of light near the horizon, usually seen on a hot summer evening, unaccompanied by thunder and thought to be cloud reflections of distant lightning. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He paid his bill in the silence of the café, put two half-dollars by his plate, and walked outside, into the darkness, into the flicker of heat lightning and the tink of raindrops on the tin roof of the café."