Weather combinations

[Dustybun]

Late on Friday night I watched fine snow (sleet) falling onto settled snow and there was lightning with almost immediate thunder. I have never seen this combination before. Can anyone please tell me if this is unusual or not? Thank you.

[ummmm]

Apparently it is.

[Dris]

We were just talking about it Dustybun on this thread -very bizarre indeed.

http://www.theanswerb...k/Question962353.html

[NazNomad]

It's not unusual, it's just a thunderstorm where the precipitation is snow instead of rain.

[tiggerblue10]

I always thought that thunder storms followed warm weather.

[gen2]

Thunderstorms have two origins.
1) Strong convection of moist air on a warm summer day, (What you are thinking of)
2) Relatively warm moist air being forced up by denser cold air forcing in beneath it (A cold front)

Type 1 occurs in summer
Type 2 can occur at any time of the year and in winter, the precipitation is likely to be snow.

[tiggerblue10]

Interesting!

Would I be right in thinking that its caused by 2 different extremes of weather colliding?

[boxtops]

Oh saw that phenomenon when travelling through Germany last week, he said it was weird, the snow sky was purply.

[gen2]

Yes tiggerblue10, that is precisely it.

[Dustybun]

Thank you all for your answers and Dris for the link. Relieved to know it was so widespread and not just here on the Lincs coast.

Thanks gen2 for the technical explanation. It did 'feel' strange. The lightning lit up the whole sky - not forked, nor would I describe is as sheet - more like one of those old fashioned camera flash bulbs.