Feb23

thunder ice.

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*the thunder ice cometh. 

 

—

“thou art all ice. thy kindness freezes.”

-william shakespeare

—

 

*Yes, Thunder Ice is a real thing. 

Thundersnow is so last year.

This week in the U.S. there have been a few reports of “thunder ice” or “thunder-freezing rain.” It’s basically a thunderstorm during freezing rain or sleet.

“It’s not something we see very often, but it does happen from time to time and that’s what we experienced across the country,” said Chris Bowman, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “It’s fairly unusual,” he said. “You get pretty heavy rainfall rates and obviously with temperatures below freezing it happens.”

How does all of this happen? Convection — upward motion of air — helps produce thunderstorms. But it’s fairly rare to have convection within a winter storm. Thunder and lightning are much more common in warm-season thunderstorms. When there’s strong enough convection, along with plenty of moisture available, a winter storm can produce thundersnow. And when there’s a layer of warm air above a colder surface layer, freezing rain and sleet falls while the thunder is booming – thunder ice. 

63 responses »

    • that is so incredible, glad you are home and safe. it is really bad, many things are closed near me, lots of downed trees, wires, half million people without power. I am grateful that I still have power and that the afternoon will bring a rise in temperature.

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  21. Wacky weather everywhere. We had six inches of snow this morning in our backyard—the most I’ve seen after living here for 50 years. It wasn’t that long ago that it hadn’t snowed for ten consecutive years.

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  22. I will never forget the Christman in New England when we hosted six guests as well as our family of four and as the snow fell (very festive as we feasted) suddenly the thunder roared. It was magnificent and frightening. Our guests left immediately; afraid they wouldn’t be able to drive home. The rest of us had extra dessert. I would NOT like to experience thunder ice, please! 🙂

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