I grew up in Chicago, and we had a lot of rough thunderstorms during the summer. They would be loud, they would shake my whole house, and sometimes they would make us lose power for a couple of days. We also had some very rough snowstorms in the winter where it would be a blizzard for days. One day I asked myself why isn’t there thunder during snowstorms? Aren’t snowstorms just rainstorms during the winter?

The answer to these questions is that there actually are thunderstorms during snowstorms, they are commonly referred to as thunder-snow. So what does thunder during snowstorms indicate? Is it a less dangerous storm, or is it a more severe storm that is caused by the thunder?

Thunder snow

thunder snow is pretty much what is sounds like. During a snowstorm, thunder forms. It is a very rare and unusual occurrence, but is known to happen in mid-latitude climates, in the United States. When convection is strong enough, thunderstorms can happen even in the winter. Thunder snow can happen in three different instances. The normal one is when a thunderstorm is on the edge of a cold front or a warm front where the precipitation in the atmosphere takes the form of snow. The second instance is when there is a synoptic snowstorm that allows for conditions that make lightning and thunder to occur, but those are the most rare ones. The third one is called the lake effect where a thunderstorm is produced by cold air passing over warmer water, which produces snow squalls that then connect to the thunderstorm. These are typically found over the great lakes.

There is a video showing a meteorologist filming thunder during a snow storm, and it is actually quite entertaining watching this guy freak out over the thunder.

Is it more dangerous than a regular snowstorm?

One thing we have to know is that thundersnow is very rare. It is recorded in less than one percent of snowstorms. So when it does occur, it is something special. Professor Patrick Market from the University of Missouri recorded that there is an %86 chance that at least six inches of snow will f all within 70 miles of the lightning flash. What is considered heavy snowfall is about 8 inches per hour, so thunder snow usually occurs during heavy snowfall. Researchers are still trying to determine why thunder snow is connected to heavier snow fall.

The scary part is not how much snow falls, but how quickly it falls. An observer of a thunderstorm in the snow said “It was like watching a time-lapse movie of the snow building up, because it falls so quickly.” When thunder occurs during a snowstorm, meteorologists says that is too late to inform the local residents that there will be a whiteout coming because it happens it minutes.

Conclusion

What we can take away from this that thunder snow is dangerous in a couple of ways. One way obviously is getting struck by the lightning, which is even more rare in the winter than in the summer. But the more realistic fear should be if you are in a safe place that you can stay for a while. It is researched that when thunder occurs during a snow storm, the snow will fall quickly after that for a while. There will be inches added up after the lightning strike and it will happen quickly.

Scientists and researchers are still figuring out why thunder causes the snow to fall more aggressively, but it does. In conclusion, Thunder during snowstorms is more dangerous because of the heavy snowfall that could greatly affect the residents that live close by the strike of lightning. If you have any ideas or interesting thoughts on this topic then please comment below! Thanks for reading.