*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.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 
I’ve heard thunder snow. It’s very strange.
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it is an odd phenomenon to witness
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I hope we don’t get any of that! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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it’s really extreme. all schools closed, half a million have lost power, branches, trees down, ice everywhere
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And lightning too???
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Just a quick flash
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We get Thunder Snow here once in a while. I’ve never heard of Thunder Ice! 🙂
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New to me as well
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An awesome phenomenon.
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it really is
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Stay warm my friend
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I feel lucky to still have power -grateful
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❤️🥰
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I recall watching a film one time called “Ice Storm” starring Sigourney and Kevin Kline.
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yes, I remember that
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We had freezing rain yesterday, Beth, topped by snow and then more freezing rain. No thunder, though. But I won’t think that it won’t happen before this winter is over!
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don’t rule out any combo! stay safe and warm
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Thunder was pretty common during Buffalo’s major snowstorms this winter. Along the Great Lakes, unusual weather events aren’t so unusual. Nice post!
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that’s true, and thanks
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Pretty to look at. Not always pretty to clean up. I hope there weren’t too many power outages.
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that’s it exactly. half a million in Michigan without power
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Ouch.
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That would be most interesting. Snowed here, no thunder.
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it’s quite an odd thing to experience
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We had thunderice in 2006! I’ve never seen it rain so hard before when the temperature was in the 20’s. It looked so pretty the next day, and at least I was in one of the few areas that didn’t lose power…
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it was a super crazy mix and exactly the same beauty here, with lots of power out
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It is long ago but we had some winter thunderstorms too. Although, I cannot remember that ice rain was included.
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it’s a first for me –
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It’s definitely peculiar.
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Ice like this is, in my opinion, worse than snow. I hope you still have power and that roadways are navigable at some point. Still snowing here in southern Minnesota.
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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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I’ve heard of and experienced a lot of weird weather, but thunder ice is a new one. And not a good one.
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Not good, is right
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I’m surprised I’ve not experienced it often up here near Montreal… we’ve been “blessed” with quite the winter thus far.
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Weather is crazy all over
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It really is!
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We only got thunderstorms here in Indiana to the south of you. Fifty miles north, i heard they had ice. I hate ice. Things break.
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Yes, ice has no mercy
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I think last night it was trying to live up to that title. It was very noisy but it was just the ice hitting my window. I thought it was gonna break.
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Ice can be pretty wicked
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We had one of these a couple of years back. When we heard the thunder while the ice was falling Mrs. Chess and I thought a jet had broken the sound barrier…because it just couldn’t be thunder…but it was!
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so hard to process )
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that’s a new one on me, Beth; weather is endlessly inventive, though sometimes thoughtless —
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great description
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thanks Beth 🙂
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This is a phenomenon I can really do without.
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I could not agree more
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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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I agree, it’s all a bit off kilter –
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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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it’s very disconcerting
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It is rare, and quite beautiful…but the downed limbs and power lines often follow.
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Exactly
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Beautiful!
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beautiful and dangerous both
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It’s a fascinating thing to happen. Here in Ohio we have had a very mild winter. We haven’t even had to use the snowblower.
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we really have in Michigan too, up until this storm
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Whatever it is, I don’t like it unless I am viewing a cool picture of it in the warmth of my home.
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and you have power
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Yes, power is essential for me!
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Wow. Crazy!
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So crazy
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