What is Thundersnow?

http://mentalfloss.com/article/90955/what-thundersnow

Heavy snow can often create a peaceful setting. A blissful quiet may develop as snowflakes drape the landscape beneath a blanket of white. But occasionally, a sky-wide flash can disrupt this tranquility with a deafening, ear-splitting crash. That sound can echo, briefly, like gunshots. The ground may even shudder.

This is thundersnow.

To occur, the circumstances have to be exceptional. And unless it occurs almost directly overhead, you may never know it. The reason: Snow acts as a sound suppressor, muffling thunder and limiting the sound’s ability to bounce and spread.

Yet thundersnow appears to be getting a bit less rare.

Thunderstorms usually form when warm air near the ground rises (because it is less dense than nearby masses of cold air). It’s the same reason a hot air balloon soars. And these conditions are why most boomers are spawned during spring and summer months.

The climbing air will rise several kilometers (miles) up, to a height where the temperature is below freezing. This can trigger a phenomenon called triboelectrification (Try-bo-ee-lek-trih-fih-KAY-shun). This word describes friction among air particles that causes a separation of electrical charge. It’s somewhat like rubbing a balloon against fabric so that the separated charge now allows the balloon to temporarily “stick” to the wall

                                       

Tall structures, such as skyscrapers, radio towers and wind turbines, may create conditions that greatly up the chance of cloud-to-ground lightning during windy snowstorms.

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