Lightning strikes during snow storms may signal a blizzard…
Today, this article in New Scientist caught my eye. It seems that after studying the phenomena scientists believe that lightning during a snow storm, which is a very rare event (called thundersnows), indicates that a blizzard is coming. The more lightning the stronger the blizzard.
I’m originally from Maine and I think I’ve only seen/heard of thunder and lightning during a snow storm maybe twice in all the time I lived there. Both times the snow was just incredible afterward. Guess I never put the two events together. The articles says that it only gives about a short warning of the blizzard but some warning is better than the current “eye-witness” weather reports.
Predicting weather is getting better all the time but there’s still a long way to go to be totally accurate. The longer the forecast is from the day you read about it the less reliable it is — reading Saturday’s forecast on Monday is unlikely to be more than a general tendency in the weather than an actual prediction.
But to be able to accurately predict a blizzard from the lightening may help those who have to make those decisions to open or close schools, government offices, and business. If it’s snowing fairly heavily and it starts thundering and lightning — it’s probably going to get a lot worse very soon.