Thundersnow

Lisa commented, "thundersnow!! I love your wording of things....we had like a small hail and then harsh thunder thing going on the other night too...may  have been the night you had your thundersnow. The weather has been just insane this year."

It HAS been insane, Lisa! When her comment came in, I was reading the paper. I said to Ken, "Lisa likes the word 'thundersnow.' But I'm pretty sure that's real. Isn't that really what it's called?" He said, "I think so, but I'm not sure." I went on reading the paper, and was reading the weather page. One of our local meteorologists, Andrew Sweeney, often writes about various odd weather phenomena. You guessed it...his topic today was thundersnow! Here's what he wrote:

"Usually when we think about thunder and lightning we think about warm spring or summer days. However, it is possible to have thunder and snow at the same time. We had some in our area on Thursday night. Thundersnow is rare but it can occur if the conditions are just right. Thunderstorms are fueled by warm temperatures so we usually see them in the spring and summer. To get thundersnow temperatures will need to be close to freezing and there must be a good amount of instability in the atmosphere. Cold temperatures at the surface allow for the snow to fall while cold air and warm air clash in the upper atmosphere and the result is thunder, lightning and snow."

Et voilà! Thundersnow!

Tags: Thundersnow