Why doesn't it thunder when it snows?

Question

Why not? Rain and snow storms are both precipitation. Why does do you never see thunder and lighting during snow storms?

Answer 1

There are usually three forms of thundersnow:

A normal thunderstorm on the leading edge of a cold front or warm front that either forms in a winter environment or one which runs into cool air and maintains the precipitation as snow.
A heavy synoptic snowstorm in the comma head of an extratropical cyclone that sustains strong vertical mixing which allows for favorable conditions for lightning and thunder to occur.
A lake effect or ocean effect thunderstorm which is produced by cold air passing over relatively warm water, this effect commonly produces snow squalls over the Great Lakes.

One unique aspect of thundersnow is that the snowfall acts as an acoustic suppressor of the thunder. The thunder from a typical thunderstorm can be heard many miles away, while the thunder from thundersnow can usually only be heard within a two to three kilometer radius from the lightning. In the United States, March is their peak month of formation, and on average, only three events are reported per year.

Thundersnow is a particularly rare meteorological phenomenon that includes the typical behavior of a thunderstorm, but with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain. It commonly falls in regions of strong upward motion within the cold sector of extratropical cyclones between autumn and spring when surface temperatures are most likely to be near or below freezing.

Answer 2

Sometimes it does! I have been in a thunderstorm with very heavy snow and thunder and lightning. Usually however, there is not enough heating in the winter for a good, tall, rolling thunderstorm to form. Thunderstorms require lifting action (either from heat, or up-slope winds, or sloping winds up a frontal boundary) and moisture, and an unstable atmosphere.

The atmosphere is unstable when it is very hot below. When unstable, a packet of air, when nudged upward for any reason, continues to rise. (that same packet will cool at 5.5 degrees per 1000 feet until water condenses from it, then 3.5 degrees per 1000 feet) Even though the packet cools, if it doesn't cool FAST ENOUGH it will still be warmer than the surrounding air and continue to rise. It will do this, creating a severe updraft and a thunderstorm until it rises to about 40,000 to 50,000 feet sometimes. (there it hits the stable stratosphere and stops pretty soon)

Moisture is lifted higher and higher until it condenses and forms droplets or ice crystals. These are also carried very high into the atmosphere, finally tumbling down when the lifting stops or the weight of them is too large.

Most rain does begin as snow, and melts on the way down, even in a thunderstorm.

Anyway, typically the air near the ground is very hot and moist when the atmosphere is unstable enough to create a thunderstorm, so it is usually not when the temperature will support snow at ground level.

Hope that sheds some light at least. :-)

Answer 3

It's a bit more unusual, but it does happen. I've been in 3 snowstorms where it was thundering and lightening. The last time I was in such a storm was last October in southwest Colorado.

It has to do with what type of cloud it's coming out of and how much precipitation there is, and the variance of the precipitation. It's more common that snow comes from quiet smaller clouds instead of the larger thunderclouds, but it can happen.

Answer 4

The sound of thunder comes from the air being heated when lightening strikes. When lightening strikes it heats the air so fast that it creates a booming sound that we call thunder. This occurs most often with thunderstorms as we call them because of the atmospheric pressure and the electricity being produced so rapidly with the differing variables of the storm. Now in snowstorms the pressure isn't as high as in thunderstorms and it has enough time to disperse the electrons in the sky. Lightening can occur during snowstorms but it is improbable that it will.

Answer 5

Thunder is caused by movement of water vapor creating static friction. Most thunderstorms occur when heated air rises. The rising air collides with the clouds above it, producing lightning, which in turn produces thunder.

Those conditions aren't as common during snow storms, but it happens sometimes. I have been in several thundersnow storms.

Answer 6

It does thunder when it snows, mostly during blizzards or strong low pressure systems that bring major snow. I've experienced 'thundersnow' before, so I know it happens. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen nonetheless. I live in a state that gets snow in winter (not that much this year so far, thank goodness) so I can say I've experienced it. I've seen lightning and heard thunder during blizzards here and some snowstorms in the past. :D

Answer 7

Thunder snow is merely once you get lightning throughout a snow typhoon. in many cases alongside the chilly the front or prior to the front there would properly be sufficient raise to have some strong embedded convection and some lightning. i have experienced it some cases throughout Nor'easters decrease back in New England.

Answer 8

I have heard thunder when it is snowing. It's not as often an occurrence as when it rains, but it does happen.

Answer 9

because snow clouds aren’t conducive to lightning