Lightning/snow storm

[Chas H]

We're having our weekly snow dump again but tonight it's accompanied by a few bolts of lightning. It's not the first time I've seen it, but it is sorta rare around here. The thunder is quite muted and the flash is greenish rather than blue/white. Is lightning during a snow storm common elsewhere?

[LandYaghtLover]

Happens here too. But so far this year nothing. The two years prior it happened. However, prior to a few years ago I never saw it. Seems to be more common as of late. Not sure why.

[MS Fowler]

Had some lightning and a peal or two of muted thunder just south of you, ChasH, in Bel Air, MD.

At that time we were getting about 8" per hour--based on the snow that fell while I was clearing off the walk and driveway. Now the rate is about half that. I think we have lines of snow squalls blowing through.
Got to take my wife to a Balto hospital 11am tomorrow. She's in full panic mode " How are you going to get there? When do we need to leave, What if.......?"
I reassured her that the snow was supposed to stop 8 hours or more before we need to leave, and that will allow plenty of time for the plows to do their work. She sort of loves the panic mode--I refuse to participate. 40+ years of marriage---somehow, we'll manage this crisis, too.

[barry123400]

Seen it up north here. Seldom occuring event. Not in the last few years that I can remember.

[tbomachines]

Not common, it is called "thundersnow" and we've been getting it here pretty much all evening too

[Hatterasguy]

Kinda rare and very cool!

[Fulcrum525]

I saw and heard one bolt but that's all.

[alamostation]

It is an awesome phenomenon. In years of living in upstate New York and SE Michigan I never saw it happen. A while back I watched it happen for two hours in Abilene, Texas.

My guess is it just takes a cold front over-riding a moist warmer area like a normal thunder storm, except that moist areas in which snow would not melt are rare.

[mgburg]

It happens quite a bit up this way...

I don't remember the condition of the snow (wet vs. dry) but what I do recall is that there's a LOT of snow coming down and the wind is just right.

Thundersnow is what I call it, too.

The next neatest part of the stuff? If you're near tower guy-wires, particularly AM radio towers, the other "side-bar" to the conditions found with Thundersnow is "Johnny Balls" or "St. Elmo's Fire" coming off the guy-wires...little blue balls (or spots) of static electricity making a "dotted line" from one guy-wire down to the next guy-wire and on down...one right after the other. The sound is similar to an overly-hyper bug-zapper on steriods.

WARNING WILL ROBINSON!!!
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO
INTERUPT/TOUCH/TASTE/MUTILATE
SAID ITEMS! SOCKS WILL NOT
ADHERE TO YOUR FEET AND
CLOTHES WILL BE USELESS
FOR YOUR CARCASS.
THIS STUFF WILL
HURT YOU LIKE
YOU'VE NEVER
BEEN HURT
BEFORE.

(Just saying!)

[okyoureabeast]

This has happened almost every year in Erie for the past five or so years.

The snow does a pretty good job at muffling that low rumble!

[jplinville]

We had it during the last major snow storm last week. Quite a site to see...

[MS Fowler]

Originally Posted by jplinville

We had it during the last major snow storm last week. Quite a site to see...

Naw--that was just the residual effects of the Ravens-Steelers game bouncing off the upper atmosphere. Still the best game of the post season--and likely to remain so.

[dynalow]

Originally Posted by Chas H

We're having our weekly snow dump again but tonight it's accompanied by a few bolts of lightning. It's not the first time I've seen it, but it is sorta rare around here. The thunder is quite muted and the flash is greenish rather than blue/white. Is lightning during a snow storm common elsewhere?

This storm mostly passed the shore by. It changed over from heavy rain & wind to sleet about 8:00 last night and I think it was all over here by 11 or 12. Only about 1.5-2" of sleet, semi-frozen snow this am. Thank heaven the air temp stayed above freezing yesterday. Dodged our 3rd bullet of the winter.

No thunder or lightning out here Chas.

[SwampYankee]

Originally Posted by dynalow

This storm mostly passed the shore by. It changed over from heavy rain & wind to sleet about 8:00 last night and I think it was all over here by 11 or 12. Only about 1.5-2" of sleet, semi-frozen snow this am. Thank heaven the air temp stayed above freezing yesterday. Dodged our 3rd bullet of the winter.

No thunder or lightning out here Chas.

I went to bed with 4-8" in the forecast. Figured I'd wake up around 4:30 and get all of my accounts done in time to get to work at 7. Woke up to 14" of heavy stuff. Got the non-retired driveways mostly cleaned, the retired driveways mostly passable and 1/2 the sidewalks done. Guess I'm going out of the snowplowing business with a bang!

We're going to spend the afternoon on the roof with my brother's snowblower to get some of the load off. He's got a newer one with all sorts of safety features and separate clutches so we figure with the feet lifting the chute off the roof .75"-1" we shouldn't get into too much trouble with it. My lightweight one isn't self-propelled and my big one isn't something you want to be on a rubber roof with.

COME ON SPRING!

[Dee8go]

I guess this is what I was seeing last night. I thought it was a transformer blowubg up or arcing or something like that. It was pretty cool. I don't recall seeing lightning in a snow storm before.