霹雳与雷霆有什么分别？(What's the difference between 霹雳 and 雷霆?)

我听到了一声霹雳，随后天空突然开始下起了雨

To me, this sentence is a bit off, because 霹雳 is usually a vision of lightening. I will probably put: 一道霹雳，随后天空突然开始下起了雨。 or 就见一道霹雳，随后天空突然开始下起了雨。

空中雷霆一响，就把孩子吓哭了。

This sentence makes a lot of sense.

So, the difference: 雷霆 is more of sounding and 霹雳 is more of vision.

As a noun, both 霹靂 and 雷霆 can be translated as "thunderbolt"

To find the difference between them, we can look into the idioms associate with the two terms:

• 雷霆萬均(之勢) = Thunderous (momentum)

• 大發雷霆 = Raging furiously; thunderous rage

• 晴天霹靂 = Thunder from a clear sunny sky

From the idioms above, it seems like:

• 霹靂 is mainly used as a noun for 'thunderbolt' or 'sound of a thunderclap'

• 雷霆 is mainly used in a metaphorical sense. As an adjective for "thunderous" e.g. 雷霆一擊 (a thunderous strike)

According to 汉典:

霹雳 (pīlì) mainly means thunderbolt as the atmospherical phenomenon.

又急又响的雷，是云与地面之间发生的强烈雷电现象

sudden and loud thunder, it's the strong lightning bolt occurring between the clouds and earth

雷霆 (léitíng) mainly means thunderclap, as the booming sound of the thunderbolt, and it's also used figuratively. In English that would be thunderous.

洪大而急发的雷声

booming and sudden thunder clap

比喻声威或怒气

describes metaphorically prestige or rage (thunderous, roaring)

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In your examples, the two words look similar because of context:

空中雷霆一响

Here it's definitely thunderclap, reinforced by the presence of 响, denoting a sound. (The usage of “一 yī” follows the "一 (yī) ～ 就 (jiù)" structure, events in quick sequence). "A thunderclap from the sky, ...".

Translating as "The thunderbolt" is not wrong, but that seems poetic license on the translator's part, which is fine, since the sentence can't be nicely translated word-for-word.

我听到了一声霹雳

Here 霹雳 is preceded by 一声, which works as a classifier / measure word, and results in "one sound of thunderbolt". Therefore "I heard a clap of thunder."