Thundersnow

[sarongsong]

This morning's TV news spoke about thundersnow occurring overnight in Buffalo, New York---have not heard this term before.

...a particularly rare meteorological phenomenon that includes the typical behavior of a thunderstorm, but with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain... Wikipedia

[Tensor]

This morning's TV news spoke about thundersnow occurring overnight in Buffalo, New York---have not heard this term before.

I saw it quite often when I was living in Iceland.

[jrkeller]

I experienced it once in Denver about 10 years ago. I was very odd.

[Essan]

A thunderstorm with snow We had a cold front bring fairly widespread thundersnow to England a couple of years ago. It missed me though (got the snow, not the thunder).

[NEOWatcher]

Yep; not all that common, but not unusual for the Great Lakes.

Those kinds usually bring lots of heavy snow.

[grant hutchison]

Seen it a couple of times in Scotland. The lightning is spectacular when it lights up the falling snow.

Grant Hutchison

[jrkeller]

Yep; not all that common, but not unusual for the Great Lakes.

Those kinds usually bring lots of heavy snow.

Now that you mention it, I remember a few times as a kid (in Detroit) that there was lightning which snow.

In Houston, we get plenty of lightning, like last night, but not much snow.

[R.A.F.]

I was very odd.

I'll take your word for that, although I don't know what that has to do with the subject of this thread.

Have never heard of, nor experienced thundersnow...sounds cool.

[Swift]

Yep; not all that common, but not unusual for the Great Lakes.

Those kinds usually bring lots of heavy snow.

Ditto. I have heard it maybe two or three times in the 19 years I've lived here. I have only heard thunder, never seen lightning.

[novaderrik]

i've experenced a few thundersnow occurences in my 3 decades of life in MN.
very cool stuff, and the noise and lightshow throws you off a bit.

[NEOWatcher]

Yep; not all that common, but not unusual for the Great Lakes.

Those kinds usually bring lots of heavy snow.

And for evidence of that:
October lake effect brings thundersnow
Warm enough for thunderclouds, and cold enough for snow...

[Eoanthropus Dawsoni]

I enjoy photographing lighting and have been trying to get a good shot of winter lighting for several years without any luck. The light reflects off the millions of snowflakes creating a diffuse blue glow that looks very spectacular when seen, but a very boring photograph.

[sarongsong]

Not sure if relevant to lightning, but a documentary on filming fire several years ago mentioned the secret was using an orange filter.

[Meteora]

Thundersnow is uncommon because of the way lightning is generated (has to do with freezing levels). It's difficult to get the right vertical distribution of temperatures and instability to generate both snow and lightning. But like others who have posted here, I've certainly seen it happen. 5 inches of snow in 45 minutes - St. Louis, Missouri. Blinding flash of lightning at night over fresh snow - Illinois. Since it seems to have forgotten how to snow here in Oklahoma, I don't get to see it much anymore.

[Maksutov]

Used to experience that in Connecticut a couple times per winter.

[Eoanthropus Dawsoni]

Not sure if relevant to lightning, but a documentary on filming fire several years ago mentioned the secret was using an orange filter.

The problem with shooting lightning during a snow storm is that even if the camera is pointed in the direction of the lightning bolt, the light will be coming from all directions.

I have concluded that the only way it is going to work is to be outside of the storm, shooting towards it. That is easy to do with a thunderstorm however snow lightning tends to be embedded in large areas of snow. I believe that it will be next to impossible to get a good photo of snow lighting however if I ever do, it will be an extremely marketable image.

[JustAFriend]

I grew up in Ohio and thundersnow happened a couple of times a year.

Nothing new...