WTF Thundersnow?!?

[KMA]

New one on me, thought it was just a noisy truck going past, then went to top up the bird feeders and heard a pretty big crack of thunder. Started off with normal thundery type rain then heavy, small flakes, can't remember seeing this before in my 60yrs. Interesting. Guess we won't be laying paving slabs next door then.

 

[Yale]

@Simon Keeling

 

[Simon Keeling]

Ooo you lucky thing! Thunder snow is rare but not unheard off. The reason is that the cumulonimbus clouds usually associated with thunder can't quite grow big enough in the cold air to trigger thunder. But if the air is unstable enough (that means a sharp temperature contrast between the surface and higher levels) the clouds can grow big enough for thunder. Hope that makes sense?

 

[puppet]

New one on me, thought it was just a noisy truck going past, then went to top up the bird feeders and heard a pretty big crack of thunder. Started off with normal thundery type rain then heavy, small flakes, can't remember seeing this before in my 60yrs. Interesting. Guess we won't be laying paving slabs next door then.

Snowing heavily down the road here but no thunder

 

[had e nuff]

Bad day here as well. No thunder though.

 

[KMA]

Thanks Simon, I'd thought I heard rumblings but as it was snow I'd dismissed as particularly noisy lorries, it wasn't until I went outside that I actually believed that it was actually Thunder snow. Only about 30mm, but special for all that. I'm in Dunscore if that makes any difference.

 

[Pond digger]

I’ve witnessed this as well recently; Iike you, I thought it was strange. Now you mention though, yes, it’s very strange indeed.

 

[hendrebc]

I was feeding hay on the ground to some heifers in that snow we had in december and saw a flash and hears a rumble. I sh!t my pants and drove home very quickly!

 

[mwj]

In my country it happens as well. It can be very unsettling at night to see the snow light up before you hear the thunder.

 

[Still Farming]

Big bang here today ?
Maybe same thing -Strange ??

 

[Kidds]

Had it here a couple of Christmas ago

 

[Happy]

Only witnessed it once. 30th November 2010.
Snowed, rumbled & flashed away for a good hour. Really weird spectacle.
Had snow and temps down to -15c for the 6 weeks that followed that.

 

[ladycrofter]

So that's where our snow got to today - STV had us ready for another apocalyptic blizzard.

Few years ago we were woke in the middle of the night to blue flashes and thunder and a genuine blizzard - apparently, and I can't imagine the science behind it, thunder snow makes turquoise lightening.

 

[MrNoo]

Yes, not witnessed it myself but have heard the lightening can be all sorts of hues, blue, green the works! Be nice to have some snow to be honest!

 

[abitdaft]

Only witnessed it once. 30th November 2010.
Snowed, rumbled & flashed away for a good hour. Really weird spectacle.
Had snow and temps down to -15c for the 6 weeks that followed that.

2010 was horrendous! We had temps of minus 28 for at least 3 weeks running, days were spent trying to thaw water pipes and at some points a hose into the tractor bucket from the house was the only way to run water for stock.Our winter losses were horrific that year. Nightmare! We have had a few thunder snow spectaculars this winter, not pleasant when you are on the bike out on the hill.

 

[Pilgrimmick]

2010 and 2011 were awful winters, we lost the water supply to the house for weeks each year, so we changed the supply, dug in a new tank and ran the pipe 6' deep, hopefully cured the problem, but do not know as we have not had temps so low since.

 

[Pilgrimmick]

To cap it all we had just moved into the farm and the house was heated using a back boiler on an open baxi fire. The windows were single glazed and loose, the gap under the front door was about an inch, Ice in every room, including the one with the fire! Was a struggle, breaking the ice on the strean to get jerrycans of water for house and, luckily, the very small ammount of stock that we has at the time.
Not much snow either year, just relentless -20 cold.

 

[abitdaft]

To cap it all we had just moved into the farm and the house was heated using a back boiler on an open baxi fire. The windows were single glazed and loose, the gap under the front door was about an inch, Ice in every room, including the one with the fire! Was a struggle, breaking the ice on the strean to get jerrycans of water for house and, luckily, the very small ammount of stock that we has at the time.
Not much snow either year, just relentless -20 cold.

We had heavy snowfall before the temps dropped, I learned a lot about driving in those conditions very fast. The council ploughed the road after about a week but did not grit it, it was like ice road truckers! The cold just kept seeping in and we had the kids sleeping in the sitting room as upstairs was like an ice box, well it was an ice box. We were peeling the curtains out of the ice in some rooms. Power cuts were a nightmare, very grateful for the open fire as at least I could cook on it.

 

[Pilgrimmick]

We had heavy snowfall before the temps dropped, I learned a lot about driving in those conditions very fast. The council ploughed the road after about a week but did not grit it, it was like ice road truckers! The cold just kept seeping in and we had the kids sleeping in the sitting room as upstairs was like an ice box, well it was an ice box. We were peeling the curtains out of the ice in some rooms. Power cuts were a nightmare, very grateful for the open fire as at least I could cook on it.

Not a winter I would like to repeat, hopefully am MUCH better prepared for it now, Insulation, double glazing, biomass boiler, wood butning stoves, Calor cooker and of course the deeper water supply!