why aren't there thunder storms in the winter time?

Question

why do they mainly occur in the spring or summer?

Answer 1

They DO happen in winter. We had one this morning. At the same time we had a blizzard. The lightning storm occurs when a cold front runs into a warm front. Blizzard/thunderstorms can occur in these circumstances when the temp. is hovering above zero.

Answer 2

Good question. There are indeed thunderstorms in the winter. They occur with both rain and snow. And it is not at all impossible to have a tornado generated with a thunder snow storm. All you need for thunderstorms is unstable air, air that once lifted tends to continue rising by itself. This air is said to cool adiabatically while the ambient or surrounding air cools much faster and so the unstable air is warmer and more buoyant. This is not a rare event and occurs almost every winter somewhere in the US

Answer 3

Definitely, it happens When I lived in Germany years ago Thunder snow storms generally ended up dumping close to a foot of snow. i only recall 1 or two in Southern Colorado but they also dropped alot of snow for this area. I'll concur with the weatherman, if conditions are present for a thunder storm it will happen BTW it is awesome to watch lightning through thick clouds at 2 am. The reflection off clouds and snow lights everything like daytime.

Answer 4

There are thunder storms in winter, but they are not as frequent as in summer. In the warmer months there is a lot of energy in the atmosphere from the heat differential caused by the sun's radiation absorbed by the ground. Less so in winter months, but it can happen

Answer 5

During the summer and spring seasons, the increased temperature causes there to be more humidity in the air since the bodies of water evaporate more. As the water evaporates more, the humidity becomes more and more dense allowing for electric charges in the atmosphere to have an outlet through the dense humidity to the ground causing the lightning along with the humidity building up as clouds in the sky until they become so dense that rain falls.

Answer 6

Ohio did have a thunder storm a couple of weeks ago. They called it Thunder Snow instead because it was snowing instead of raining. So , thunder storms can happen in winter.

Answer 7

There are thunderstorms in winter. They just occur more often in spring and summer.
Weather is more stable in winter. There is not as much turbulence. In summer the heating of air causes more turbulence, and thus static buildup.
A simplified answer.

Answer 8

If I'm not mistaken, thunder is a result of hot air & cold air. In the winter there is a lack of hot air.

Maybe that's too simple of an explanation.

Answer 9

We had a thundr storm today and it is still winter(I am in MD)
The river was frozen across this morning, now it is clear.
Thethunder comes from the meeting of different air masses, a strong front went though(a front is where air masses meet)

Answer 10

There are thunderstorms during winter but instead of rain it mostly snows...and there also winter storms.