The reason Adelaide’s overnight storm set houses rattling

The Bureau of Meteorology has revealed why Adelaide's overnight storm felt like an earthquake, waking up startled sleepers with particularly loud cracks of thunder.

The BoM South Australia Twitter account posted a message to clear up the mystery, after residents reported their houses were shaking in the ferocious weather.

"Wondering why the thunder was so loud last night #Adelaide?" the message read.

"It's called inversion lightning."

The Wikipedia article linked to in the tweet revealed inversion lightning occurred when strikes hit the earth in an area where the air temperature closer to the ground is cooler compared to the air higher up.

The sound energy from the thunder is unable to disperse vertically and is contained closer to the ground, resulting in louder strikes.