Lightning in a Snowstorm?

Hey everyone NeoAstra here. Just curious if anyone knows if it is normal to have lightning in a snowstorm, here in the panhandle of Texas i have never seen it before. Quite frankly it worries me a bit, i dont know if i am being paranoid or what, but it definitely is abnormal to these parts, i have lived here all my life... if anyone has an explanation to this can you please elaborate?
thank you

reply to post by NeoAstra


en.wikipedia.org...

www.youtube.com...

We had it here in Central Illinois last year. I'm 33 years old, and that was the first time in my entire life I'd seen it. It was freaky as hell driving, lightning flashing against the bright white snow.

Hey Neo, Up here in New England it happens every now and again. At times it looks all crazy and end of the worldish...But as for down your neck of the woods i dont know. I spent most of meterology class back in my highschool days gettin stoned with Bill...

reply to post by NeoAstra


I have seen it once, during a rare blizzard in 1993, also an el nino year. We had 12 ft drifts that night! The lightning was strange thought, I had seen snowstorms but nothing like that. Apparently there was a strong storm coming out of the gulf that arrived at the same time as a coldfront came down out of Canada. The lightning was bright blue and purple, and just like any other thunderstorm we typically see here, there was lots of thunder too.

I was in Amsterdam, Netherlands recently. Was in a restaurant, real heavy snowfall and I saw a bright flash, first thought it was a spark from one of the trolley cars going by. Later went outside, it was still snowing and there were several lightning flashes and thunder. First time in my life I ever saw lightning in a snowstorm.

I do have a possible explanation. Since early 2008, Sunspots have almost totally gone away. Something about Sunspots protects the Earth from cosmic rays. The Earth is now getting almost double the density of cosmic rays than just a few years ago. The cosmic rays interact with water vapor in the atmosphere to form clouds and also may provide energy for lightning. Also the reason global warming is going away and its gonna get really cold.

Thundersnow is not that uncommon, although I've never experienced it.

Inside the mystery of Thundersnow

One evening in late '84 in Northern Virginia (near D.C.) as a youth, I vividly remember a heavy squall line/thunderstorm pushing through the area, and within 10 minutes the heavy thunderstorm changed over to heavy snow! Thunder and all!
It was the only time in my life that I've seen this phenomenon. It's rare, but it does happen!





[edit on 20-3-2010 by ghr54321]

Okay, thanks for the info.. im a little relieved, but a little worried still as to why it happens in texas, especially the panhandle.... i mean our rainstorms are bad, but idk, maybe it had something to do with all the seismic activity thats going on messing with the weather a bit.

Dont know if its normal but here in the uk during the heavy snow it happened here a few times.

Originally posted by NeoAstra
Okay, thanks for the info.. im a little relieved, but a little worried still as to why it happens in texas, especially the panhandle.... i mean our rainstorms are bad, but idk, maybe it had something to do with all the seismic activity thats going on messing with the weather a bit.

The snowstorms are being aided by spraying silver iodide into the weather systems. Since silver is the most conductive metal there is, it enables lightning in what is usually a lightning free event.

I've seen lightning and thunder during snow storms at least a few times when I lived in NC. I always heard on the news that it was explained as being due to a lot of convection in the sky the same as occurs during heavier thunderstorms. I suppose it's not as safe to be outside if it is lightning. I believe there's a good chance you were experiencing heavy snow or someone in your area likely was.

You know probably about 3 years ago I was wondering and actually asked my wife if this was true. And that same day a snow storm rolled through Calgary and low and behold lightning in a snow storm.I was amazed and have only seen/heard it that one time.

It is amazing and glad to see so many people have experienced it before. I thought I was special.



Pred...