!!ThunderSnow !!

Thundersnow = a Thunderstorm that has snow reaching the ground instead of rain. It is fairly uncommon to have a thunderstorm created when temperatures in the upper atmosphere are cold enough to create snow.

Once again, I find myself complete stunned at the most recent experience that I have had with some sort of strange weather phenomena. This is another one of those phenomena that I have wanted to experience since my freshman year of college when I first learned about it. THUNDERSNOW!!! (when you read that you have to read it with Gusto... it sounds cooler ;-)).

Now, I experienced this about a month ago, and it was pretty sweet. The windy-cold city that I live in, was experiencing some freezing rain. All of a sudden a low rumble from outside. Then, mumbles of it sounding like thunder. Another low rumble and confusion set in. You can understand the mass confusion of things as people were peaking their heads out of cubicles asking if it was thundering. That day, the forecast was for freezing rain turning over to snow with accumulation of snow up to 6 inches. *FLASH* *CRACK* *BOOM* there goes the lightning followed by the thunder. Everyone was confused...I was even confused... the meteorologist. How could there be a forecast for snow and we are hearing thunder outside?

As I was walking out to my car, it started to snow; BIG SLOPPY SNOW! I'm talking golf ball size sloppy snowflakes! Driving to target I see another flash. I thought to myself, "No it can't be." Then... *BANG* a thunder clap so loud it shook my car.

In the words of Gru from "Despicable Me", "Light Bulb!" Yup. It was definitely Thundersnowing out.

Super Excited, I called one of my Best WX Girls, L, up and screamed into the phone, "IT'S THUNDERING AND LIGHTNING AND SNOWING!" She started to put two and two together. Then she heard me yell, "THUNDERSNOW!!! I FINALLY GET TO EXPERIENCE THUNDERSNOW!" Yeah, she was as excited as I was. Too Bad L and my other best WX Girl, K, were no where near this huge flat state that, all three of us wanted to escape.

Eventually the snow was done with the sloppy and started to form more of a pellet shape. So I can imagine most thought it was hail... when truly it was snow pellets (explained in a previous post). Everyone in this spread out town was thinking it was weird weather for the end of winter!

It's a Fact... I can prove it with Science!
Thundersnow Storms form a lot like a spring or summer time Thunderstorm. They start out with the ground heating up and a warm and moist parcel of air starting to rise off of the ground. That parcel condenses into a cloud and start to become unstable. In the case of thundersnow, the air layer close to the ground has to be warmer than the layers above it. This is a tricky type of situation to form, especially in the cold winters of ND and MN. When it happens it can have help from some sort lift. In this case, the lift that helped was a cold front moving through the area.

Illustration of an occluded front. This is the most common front for Thundersnow.
Helps illustrate synoptic lifting

The lifting help from a front is called Synoptic lifting. What that means, is we had a low pressure system with a cold front attached. right ahead of the cold front there is "lifting of air parcels" going on to create instability in the atmosphere. Ahead of cold fronts you usually see some sort of precipitation (this case it was snow) and can often see thunderstorms, if there is enough instability.

This year has been full of great things weather wise. Minus the fact that winter still doesn't think its over... IN MAY! The things I've experienced in this windy town have been really amazing so far, weather wise! Hope you guys all get to enjoy them at some point too.

"It's a proven fact... It's Science."

Side note: K eventually got to experience Thundersnow too... in her own tree and farm filled state. We are waiting on L to have the same awesome experience!!