B737-700
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 314
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Distraction
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Aircraft; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Returned To Gate
Procedure
Conditions at the time of the event were thunderstorms in the area; rain; and night time. Moments before the push with the jetway disconnected; the Ground Personnel gave me the motion of 'No Headsets'; which was understandable with the lighting in the area. I proceeded to open the cockpit window to have a quick briefing by yelling down to him. He told me they 'are going without headsets'. I said 'I understand; let's use standard signals; but let me give you some additional instructions.' I told him if during the pushback I flash you once with the taxi light; that means 'Stop the push'. If I flash you multiple times with the light; that means we have a problem and 'Pull us back into the gate '. After he had an understanding; I closed the window and we proceeded with the push.ZZZ is a 'No Call for Push' station; I gave them the brakes released signal when we were ready. I was only able to see the Wing Walker on my side (left) who I was relaying the signals. It was about a minute or two before we started moving and I remember saying to the First Officer 'There must be a Traffic Jam behind us.' We proceeded to push then we stopped for about five seconds and I was looking for the Ground Personnel in my visual range to give me the 'Set the Brakes' signal. That is when we felt the jolt to the aircraft. It felt different from a tow bar breaking because there was an obvious swaying motion in the aircraft. I said to the First Officer 'We just got hit!' Looking out the right window we both saw the other aircraft turn away to the right taxiing away.The First Officer was quick on the radio informing Ground Control of the collision and to mitigate the possibility if the other aircraft was unaware of possible damage. I flashed the Ground Crew multiple times with the taxi lights and they immediately towed us back to the gate. Station Ops was called to meet us; and then I started the call to Dispatch and the Operations Center
Flight crew reported that with severe weather; ramp crew could  not use headsets during pushback; resulting in confusion and a collision with another aircraft.