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Thundersnow

Mighty_Emperor

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Posted on Fri, Feb. 27, 2004

Flakes fall with bizarre lightning, thunder

Thunder and lightning rarely accompany snow; they call it thundersnow

DAVID PERLMUTT

Staff Writer


Don Baker slept in Thursday morning, expecting the forecasts for snow to deliver him the day off from his carpenter's job.

He was awakened by thunder.

"They got it wrong again," was his first thought as Baker of Charlotte pulled himself out of bed and started for a shower. "It was supposed to snow, but we get a thunderstorm."

Then he looked out his bedroom window.

"It was white -- everywhere," he said. "My apologies to the weather man. I thought I was dreaming. It just seemed so out of place."

Baker wasn't dreaming. He'd experienced convective snow, or more generically, a thundersnow. One Charlottean referred to it as a "snunderstorm" -- a rare occurrence in these parts but not unheard of. Typically, thunder is associated with heavy snows.

Many more Carolinians were just as perplexed.

Thundersnows are more common around the Great Lakes and in western cities such as Salt Lake City, said Patrick Market, an atmospheric science professor at the University of Missouri who studies thundersnows as a forecasting tool.

"Those people who heard it in Charlotte are not crazy," Market said. "In the grand scheme of things, thundersnows are rare, but we think they've probably been underreported, too.

"In most places, people just aren't positive about what they're hearing."

The thunder, he said, is produced primarily from cloud-to-could strikes of lightning, generated by instability in the atmosphere from cold, moist air being lifted into the snowstorm and mingling with much colder air.

Thursday's thunder, which could be heard between early and midmorning, sounded different from a springtime thunder, which rolls across the horizon.

It had a deeper, more hollow sound Thursday.

Market said snow could muffle thunder. You couldn't see lightning flashes because clouds and snow absorb the light.

Justin Lane, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Greer, S.C., said soundwaves from thunder could have been muffled by stable air 2,000 feet below.

"In the spring, we get warm, humid air from the surface mixing with cool air," Lane said. "During strong winter storms, we can develop instability in midlevels of the atmosphere."

Mac Leland of Charlotte has no training in meteorology. He's 7.

He just knows what he heard, and it sounded like thunder.

"It was a boom," said the boy, who heard it Thursday morning. "It sounded like a car hit one of those things that makes electricity."

"You mean a transformer?" Mac's mother, Sandy, asked.

"Yes, a transformer."

Sandy Leland admitted to thinking she was hearing things, too.

"It was just so odd," she said. "You just don't think of snow and thunder together."

That's how Becky Ferguson of Charlotte described the experience.

She heard "one big, loud rumble" in the morning. It scared her kitten, Smudge.

"He just crouched down on the porch floor, unsure of what he'd heard," Ferguson said. "Of course, snow and thunder are new to him, being the kitten that he is. But the two together were a bit overwhelming.

"It was just strange. I think I've heard thunder with a snowstorm before. But this was my most vivid experience."

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/8053349.htm

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Emps
 
A couple of weeks back we had snow here with thunder and lightning, very unusual.
 
This very morning we had thundering and snow. never heard it before.
 
During the cold snap, we also had thunder and lightning whilst snowing. The thunder was longer then usual. The thunder storm only lasted for 2 minutes though resulting with two flashes.

It was center for discussion the next day.
 
Came across the event once.

At one time I was heavilly into alternative religions and was helping someone (D) prepare for a winter solstice ceremony. A fire pit had to be dug and ground cleared for tents. In the middle of this D and I were praising an Oak and asking for permission to dig near it's roots. Suddenly it began to snow very heavily. There had been no snow forcast. Then it began to thunder loud and continuous for about 15 to 20 mins.

Oddly no mention of this made it to local or national news
 
...

Where I live (Gloucester, UK) we very rarely have snow. The last decent snowfall was about 14 years ago...

But a few weeks ago, after hearing the weatherman say that we were going to get snow and saying "yeah, yeah, yeah...", I was amazed (and terrified) to be sitting in the lounge early that evening and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a magnificent flash of lightning. Then there was a loud crash of thunder - and within moments it was snowing heavily. I felt like I had witnessed a meteorological orgasm!

The eldest of my children is 10. It was the first time he had ever seen real snow - I mean, REAL-size-of-a-two-pence-piece flakes!!!

We have since had another inch of snow (last Friday)... so it feels like a curse has been broken over the city.

EDIT: I might add that it was ONE flash of lightning and ONE clap of thunder. Very strange...
 
We get snow thunderstorms about once every three or four years. I didn't realise they were more common here in the Great Lakes area than elsewhere.

Certainly they are a very strange experience, especially at night. As mentioned in the article, the thunder has a different sound, and instead of a bright flash of lightning, there is an eerie, diffuse glow.
 
I'm not sure how common thundersnows are in the lower Great Lakes. Lived in Chicago for 25 years and only experienced on. But it was a dandy. Rolled in about 5 AM, killed the power for quite an area (including where I was living at the time).
 
ok, not really fortean maybe but unusual

today it snowed in milan; it snowed all afternoon and it stopped around one hour ago, or so. at 8,40 pm, while i was preparing dinner, i heard a loud BOOM, and i immediately thought "thunder" - but then i thought "wait a minute, a thunder in the dead of winter? while it's snowing? it doesn't really sound right". in the meantime, i was listening to the local radio; they were having a news special about the traffic situation (looks like everybody was stuck in gridlocks all over the milan area because of the snow), and people started calling in and saying "i was in my car and i saw this weird, sudden burst of light, and i thought it was a streetlight that had gone off or something like that, but then a 'boom' followed, like a thunder, so it had to be a lightning... but lightnings and thunders don't fit in the picture", etc. etc.
it was probably just a lightning, but it sure was out of place and time - in my experience, at least.
 
It does happen. I've had a similar experience. One assumes some sort of static buildup is going on, which is then released (?).
 
thanks for all the replies and the link. very interesting. i am now officially one of the witnesses of the Eerie Phenomenon of Thundersnow. And proud of it... (anyway, got to work this morning and other colleagues had witnessed it too - and they all found it very strange).
 
Greets

we had thndersnow here in west wales last january

came over all dark about 4 o'clock in the afternoon - started snowing heavily then the thunderstorm all mixed in it

lasted on and off for about half an hour.

mal
 
Don't know if it was the same time, but a couple of us drove up to pen-y-pass car park (1/2 way up Snowdon) to watch this. Nothing like relying on basic physics to protect us inside the car!

It was very spectacular.
 
I saw lightning (can't remember if there was thunder) during a severe snowstorm in Munich a few years back. Look amazing... very Turner-esque! Like the gates of heaven had opened in the sky (or something :roll: )
 
If I remember my weatherlore correctly, thunder during the winter is a sign of an upcoming rainy summer...
 
I've experienced this only once, years ago when I lived in Northern Ontario (Sudbury, to be exact). Although we get a fair amount of snow where I live now, I've never experienced thunder during a snowstorm here. I found it amazing, and almost...well, unnatural. I know, not the best word!! Maybe paradoxical is better?
 
Yesterday had this in Liverpool UK. Rain, snow, hail, sleet and sunshine all in the same day. Not to mention daffodil bulbs coming out and cherry blossom starting to bud. This planet is seriously fucked.
 
Yep, i've seen "thundersnow" too (love the name), and it struck me as odd and cool at the time
:p
 
This is pretty common in certain parts of Norway in the winter(of course).
Especially in the west coast areas.

I have only experienced it two or three times myself.
 
In that case I will have to remember to visit Norway one day. :)
 
We had 'thunderhail' in Cheshire on Tuesday afternoon. Thunder, lightning, and pea-sized hailstones. I videod the BF holding out a handful of them.
 
escargot said:
We had 'thunderhail' in Cheshire on Tuesday afternoon. Thunder, lightning, and pea-sized hailstones.

Sure did. :shock:
 
Now that you mention it, this little smiley's eyes :shock: do look an awful lot like big hail stones. Just goes to show, this is what can happen to your eyes if you try to catch giant pieces of hail on your tongue.
 
On Tuesday (18th) this happened to me as well. I was driving back from Loughborough (England) with my boyfriend in the midst of some pretty bad weather. It was snowing and suddenly the sky lit up from lightning and a huge roll of thunder followed later. Took us both by surprise as neither of us had realised you could get 'thundersnows'.

Thanks everyone for explaining :D
 
There's supposed to be a huge snowstorm here tomorrow. I hope i hope i hope I get to see thundersnow! :D
 
Greetings all--I'm new to the list, nice to meet everyone :)

Snow thunderstorms--they are a bit more common here in the States, I think, especially in the midwest. That combination of Canadian cold air and warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico is responsible for a lot of wild weather. My grandpa used to say that thunder during a snowstorm meant it would be a heavy snow. The two or three times I've seen thunder snows, he was right.

Of course, he also talked about tornadoes during snowstorms . . . I never knew if he was joking, but if he wasn't, I'm just as happy to stick with thunder snows, thanks all the same! :shock:

During the worst whiteout snowstorm I've ever been in, it took me three hours to go 5 miles. Nothing like creeping down the road in a rusty old Chevy S10, unable to make heads or tails of anything one foot beyond the hood of the truck! I had to roll down the driver's side window and check mailboxes to know where I was, and even then I ended up in the middle of a plowed field at one point *lol* What an experience!
 
My old Slovak grandmother used to say that thunder in the winter is a very bad thing, a bad omen.
 
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