• Arb Notes for March, 3, 2009: Thunder? Snow? Thundersnow!

    If you were sitting near a window around 12:45 during Thursday’s snowstorm, you may have borne witness to a flash of lightning and prolonged rumble of thunder muffled by the blinding snowfall. Thundersnow is an extremely rare event: thought to occur in only 0.07 percent (7 of every 10000) snow storms, with 191 recorded in the last 30 years in the US, mostly in the mountains of the west and in the Great Lakes region.  While most thunderstorms can be heard for miles, the heavy snow that accompanies such storms muffles the tell tale crash, constricting the audible range to 1-2 km.