What Is Thundersnow? Snow Storm Will See Lightening And Thunder In New York, Massachusetts And East Coast States

It’s not uncommon to hear the sky rumble with thunder when it’s raining. However, some North East residents were shocked to hear thunder while it snowed early Thursday morning.

Although temperatures reached as high as 60 degrees in some areas of the North East, including New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Wednesday, by Thursday morning many cities near the east coast were covered in snow. Rainfall started in parts of Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey in the very early hours of Thursday morning, but around 3 a.m. local time the rain was replaced by snow flakes, lightening and thunder, according to reports. Boston and other areas of New England saw the first instances of snow, which brought strong winds and thundersnow around 5 a.m. local time.

The storm was expected to last about six to 10 hours in Pennsylvania and New York City areas. However, New England could see snowfall continuing well into the evening, according to weather reports. While snow was expected to fall at about one to two inches an hour in most areas of the North East, Boston could see snowfall at rates higher than two inches an hour between late Thursday morning into the late afternoon, with thundersnow events occurring throughout the day, the Weather Service in Boston reported.

Although thunder is most commonly associated with rain, it can occur during a snow storm. Thunderstorms that bring lightening and snow usually occur when tall, narrow layers of storm clouds mixed with an updraft of warm, moist air rises 40,000 feet or more in the sky. In an instance of thundersnow, temperatures at the surface level of the storm clouds are well above freezing.

Snowstorms clouds that don’t typically include instances of thunder or lightening are made up of layers of flat, shallow clouds that form around 20,000 feet in the sky.

Due to the ongoing thundersnow and winter storm, hundreds of schools were closed Thursday while more than 3,000 flights were canceled. Some areas of the North East could see anywhere between four to 12 inches of snow with Boston reportedly getting dumped with anywhere between eight and 14 inches of snow.