Is it uncommon for thunder and lightning during a snowstorm/blizzard???

First off, forgive me if this is not worthy of it's own thread, I tried the search feature and came up empty.

I am located in Northern Lower Michigan, and we are at this moment, experiencing a snowstorm/blizzard that is effecting multiple counties, and is supposed to last until 6 pm Fri. and accumulate up to 18" of snow.

I know,.... so what right???? well, I've lived in this same area for 35 years and experienced many blizzards, some much more severe in fact.

The only difference in this one, and all the other storms I've been through, is,.... this is the first one that not only is it snowing like crazy,.... it's thundering and lightning as well as the snow!!!

My question to you all is,...... is thunder and lightning common during snowstorms???

I personally have never experienced, or heard anyone speak of thunder and lightning during a blizzard in my 35 years in the area.

What makes this storm different than all the others to create thunder and lightning??

Any ideas folks???

Later,.... Bill

Lake effect snow

Lake effect of extremely cold air over still warm water in early winter can produce thunder snow, a snow storm with intense lightning and thunder.

But I know for fact that thunder snow can happen almost anywhere. I myself experienced it once in the South. The lightening was green!

Very spooky.

Dude, as Lewis Black says, "This kind of weather isn't even written about in the Bible!" It's the end of world, armeggeddon, hellfire and brimstone.

we had thundersnow in NYC Sunday morning. woke me up.

I've seen/heard it a few times in real big storms.

you are getting thundersnow due to the fact that sever thunderstorms are getting pulled into cold air... when this happens you can see snowfall rates of 2-3 evn upto 5 inces of snow in 1 hour... that is why they are calling for 12-18 inches now in northern michigan... because of the strong thunderstorms being pulled into the cold air.

I live in mid michigan and we have a tornado wach and a winter storm wach and its just in the 30s

a tornado wacth and thare is snow on the ground??
I find it vary odd.

[edit on 16-2-2006 by slayerfan]

We have a storm moving through Ottawa tonight, and they are calling for "thunder snow" and "thunder freezing rain". So it happens, rare, but it happens.

We had that here in central Jersey, it was pretty crazy. I was sitting outside watching it because it wasnt really cold when it was snowing. Most bizzard weather ive ever been in.besides that time a tornado came down my street after the labor day parade.

Thundersnow was discussed briefly this morning on CNN. 1% of snowstorms are associated with thunder and lightening. I can recall only once seeing it here in the Rockies. If it starts happening frequently, it might be a reason for concern. jeez that all we need; as if life wasn't weired enough.

yeah been long time reader here but I live in Mid Michigan and this weather is nuts made me register to post in thread...Never seen anything like this in my 13 years I have lived in Michigan...

ware are you from kenkaniff? im in hastings.

Tri Cities.....Near Midland/Bay City

I'm up in Traverse City... On a ship in the bay right now... This is freakin' nuts!!! I love it.

Lighting, Thunder, Snow, Strong Wind, Boats rocking against the dock.

Yea we had some thunder snow in the northern burbs of Chicago today. Probably only the third time I've seen it in my life.

What's wierd is how different the two masses of air that are causing these storms really are. I've never seen such a sharp dip of cold northern air that flows all the way down to mid-Texas while the east-ne is so warm. It's warmer right now in southern Michigan than it is in mid-Texas

I'm in Alpena, and have experienced all sorts of weather from lake effect snow, hail the size of golf balls, 60 degree days in december, tornados, snow flurries in june, and thought I seen/heard it all.

I guess it just goes to show you that even when you think you know your area and all the weather conditions, mother nature still always has one up her sleeve, and won't hesitate to throw you that curve ball just to keep you in check.

Later,.... Bill

This is one hell of a curveball. Hehe... You one of them crazy Alpena Pollocks man? That sounded offensive... It's just a long standing joke from the sailors on the lakes. I've got some polish in myself. *wink*

Lookin' out the window and the storm isn't slowing down at all... Seems to be picking up if anything. Anyone have an updated forecast? Uh.. I'm not going to get any sleep if this boat doesn't stop hitting the dock.

half Irish, half German, but I do know quite a few of them buggers,...

No changes in the update, I get desktop weather from the weather channel, just google desktop weather from the weather channel.

It's actually pretty cool, just download the free version, and type in your zip code and walla, instant weather for your area or any zip you enter.

It puts an icon on your toolbar, and if there's any storm warnings, the icon will turn from blue to flashing red, and the sounds of thunder will come through your computer speakers.

BTW,... don't expect to get any sleep, the update says gusts up to 35 mph on through the night.

Best of luck to you once you get out on the lake, I do NOT envy your profession at all.

Later,.... Bill

It's thundering and lightning right now in Northern Toronto...

Originally posted by Ausable_Bill
I personally have never experienced, or heard anyone speak of thunder and lightning during a blizzard in my 35 years in the area.

I was in a snowstorm in Detroit, back when I still lived there, during which I saw lightning. I did not hear any thunder with the lightning, but I was also trying to drive a car on I-94 at the time in the deepening wet snow, without spinning out. This would have been around 1995 and I was within sight of Metro Airport in Romulus. So apparently it is something that can happen in severe storms, and it is not something new.

Thunder and lightning are nothing to be concerened about when it snows.

Today in Minnesota we had a major snowstorm in the southern 1/3 of the state while the temperature in St. Louis MO was still 56 F with a high dewpoint.

Any time you have cold and dry air move into warm moist air you have fireworks.

There were tornado watches and severe thunderstorms in MO, IL, TX and IN today. When all that was going on people on the north end of the low pressure system were seeing temps in the 12 to 15 degree F range and some of us had heavy snow and bad wind chills.

Tonight they are predicting wind chills of -38 F for my area.

A storm chasser friend in Iowa emailed me tooday and said he had snow, thunder and lightning all at the same time.

At this time of year any time you get a major cold vs. warm transition there has to be some area where the best of both worlds happen like thundersnow.

Although this is early for tonado and severe thunderstorms on average stuff like this happens quite often in the Midwest.

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