THUNDERSNOW! HOW AND WHY?

Written by: Scott Hetsko
Image: www.islandnet.com

At the height of last weekends snow and ice storm, parts of our area had the rare experience of thunder snow! But how can this happen? Thunderstorms most often occur in warm and unstable environments when air is forced rapidly upward. The most common way for thunder snow to develop is by what you see on your left. Colder and more stable is located at the surface, where we are. There is a layer of instability a couple thousand feet above the surface. If you can get a good amount of rising air in this layer, convective clouds can form. Like regular thunderstorms, heavy precipitation, lightning and thunder are all in the mix. Snow fall rates can easy exceed 2" per hour during thunder snow.

As I mentioned before, they are very rare. Out of all thunderstorms, less than one percent have precipitation in the form of snow. Other than large scale storm systems, thunder snow is most common in Mountain ranges and lake effect snow bands. For more on this rare Winter weather event, click here!