Here's A First: Lightning & Thunder While Snow Blowing!

Sinistar

Sinistar

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Brad
This has to top it. I hopped on the tractor this moring and started blowing snow. About 5 minutes in I see this bright flash just to my right and like 1/millionth of second later the kind of thunder that rattles everything in the house (usually in summer:mad:).

I kept snow blowing...was that dumb?
 
I remember one time as a kid growing up in west Virginia there being a loud thunderstorm one night, looked outside and there was an inch or two of snow on the ground, damndest thing I'd ever seen
 
We had thundersnow here in the March, 1993 "storm of the century" that piled up about 16" of snow. The thundersnow was the beginning of the most amazing storm I've ever seen. Thunderstorms during a snowstorm, followed by near-blizzard conditions with 3' drifts of snow at my North-Atlanta house. It was incredible.

Even better, it was a weekend, my fridge was stocked, and I didn't lose the first utility.
 
Thundersnow is not unknown on the Canadian prairies during a blizzard. I've seen it. Get warm and cold airmasses vigorously mixing and you can get some tall storm cells that make it.
 
Two or three times late this Sierra Nevada ski season the mountain has been shut down for lightning in the area. On an annual basis, it is pretty common.
 
Thundersnow is pretty common out west. From a flying standpoint, these are real thunderstorms, although they tend to be low topped (in the 20's) and don't have the punch of a Midwest MCS, they can still kill you just as dead ;-)

Actually landed in light snow the other night, with TS in the area (Thundersnow). The blue means frozen precipitation, was actually snowing not raining when I landed.

1.jpg
 
It happened locally this winter.
It was pretty cool to experience. Not quite Jim Cantore level, excitement, but pretty cool.
 
I experienced it about '79-'80 when I lived in Tulsa. Heavy snow and thunder and lightning. Never even knew it did that while snowing.
 
Sinistar said:
This has to top it. I hopped on the tractor this moring and started blowing snow. About 5 minutes in I see this bright flash just to my right and like 1/millionth of second later the kind of thunder that rattles everything in the house (usually in summer:mad:).

I kept snow blowing...was that dumb?
Click to expand...

You've never seen Thundersnow before?

How long have you been living in Wisconsin again? We have weather that's not even in the bible!
 
TRocket said:
I remember one time as a kid growing up in west Virginia there being a loud thunderstorm one night, looked outside and there was an inch or two of snow on the ground, damndest thing I'd ever seen
Click to expand...

Maybe the same storm... I was stationed in Ohio ... pretty sure it was 1977... very bad storm/blizzard came thru... WITH PLENTY OF THUNDER AND LIGHTENING... Scary as he!! A week later they found a tractor trailer that had skidded off the road and had been buried in snow with the driver surviving the ordeal...
 
We get thundersnow at least once a year and yes, when you see the flash and hear the thunder immediately after it is dumb to stay out there, it means the lightning is happening really close by and you are in danger.
 
I've heard Thunder during the winter on several occasions up here in the North. But I've never had to actually snow blow when it is happening!
 
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