what is the reason behind thunder and lightening during a blizzard?
150999
To quote my source page:\n\n============================================================\nIs lightning ever seen during a snow storm? \n\n\n (100%, 2 ratings) submitted by Alatea (A, 93%, 2508 ratings), Oct 11, 05 \n\n(Answer last edited on Jan 28, 06)\nThe answer to the question of whether or not there can be thunder and lightning during a snowstorm is this. It is possible but it is quite rare. Here's why. \n\nA thunderstorm depends on rapidly rising moist warm air to produce the effects we see. These effects are, large volumes of rain in a short period of time, strongly gusting winds, hail, and of course lightning. When conditions aren't right (surface air is too cool and dry) it is impossible for air at the surface to rise fast and high enough to create a thunderstorm cell. Basically in winter the air is not warm or moist enough to produce thunderstorm cells.\n\nhttp://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/844703853.Es.r.html\n============================================================
28574
Lightning can happen when it snows.  The reason lighting happens is because the air in the clouds is negatively charged compared to the ground (making the clouds (-) and the gorund (+)).  The clouds usally get this way in dry conditions cause there is less moisture in the air to stop air molecules from rubbing up against one another and creating excess energy (a negative charge).  Well since the clouds are (-) it needs a way of getting rid of some energy so it can be neutral (n).  It does this by passing some energy in to the (+)  ground, which also want to be (n).  This passing of energy rips throught the (n) air in between the (-) clouds and the(+) ground and creats the effect of lightning.  Now the reason it usually doesn't happen when it snow is because of the moisture in the air being so high, but everyonce in a while the air become dry enough when it snow to produce lightning.
771884
Oh i love that! its like so peacful and the wind is blowing your hair back..... oh i just luv it! but my absolute favorite part of the storm is the thunder and lightning!
400449
Thunder is the explosive sound produced by an ordinary lightning discharge. The lightning bolt heats the air around it so quickly (within a few millionths of a second) and to such a high temperature (about 10,000° C, or about 18,000° F) that the air molecules are pushed apart with great force, much like in an explosion. A wave of compressed air (a sound wave) moves out from the lightning bolt.
1079493
A large storm pulls energy from as far around as it can reach. Therefore if the storm moving is pulling all the heat and moisture out of the air around it, then there is a void of mayhem, a calm, before the actual storm throws back all that was there to begin with.
781935
because it is very cold at cloud level and at cloud level that\nrain was once snow until it reached below a certain level and\nthen it melted.
223069
Thunder is the sound made when lightning sweeps through the air, then back, and then the air collides together, making the "boom".  Lightning is a bright flash of electricity.
422005
A localized storm- often happens with very strong thunderstorms.  Its raining and lightening here, but 5 miles away it is not, for example.  It may be even more localized than that - 1/2 mile away it isnt raining.
344047
The cause of lightning is still somewhat mysterious.  The leading theories state that an interaction between updrafts, rain droplets, and ice crystals in a thunderstorm separates positive from negative charges, such that positive charges concentrate at the top of the cloud, and negative charges at the bottom.  This negative charge in the cloud base induces a positive charge in the ground; lightning is an attempt to equalize this charge.\n\nThunder is basically a kind of explosion of air; it's what happens when the air the lightning passes through is violently heated and expands.  The reason thunder takes several seconds is because we hear thunder produced all along the lightning channel, which may be some miles long.
885505
I assume you have heard thunder?\n\nThunder is a sonic shock wave caused by the rapid heating and expansion of the air surrounding and within a bolt of lightning. The bolt changes the air into plasma and it instantly explodes causing the sound known as a thunder clap.\n\nPerhaps you thought they were distinct events because we see lightning before we hear the associated thunder clap.  The reason is that light travels *much* faster (around 186,000 miles per *second*), while sound only travels around 1/5th of a mile in a second.\n\nYou'd be hard pressed to experience a bolt of lightning without the associated thunder unless you were too far away to hear it over other noises.
589126
the flash of electricity is lightning... the sound that follow is thunder... storm usually occurs when lightning, thunder, strong wind and rain happen at the same time...
670098
hail, sleet,blizzard.\nA blizzard is a severe winter storm condition characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and heavy snow.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard
348314
warm air and cold air combine to make storms... in the winter there is less warm air
447253
it happens more frequently then you think. lightening often strikes the same place
1077150
Thunderstorms are an occurrence of high pressure and low pressure. When the two zone converge they create ionization of the atmosphere, that is an electrical charge one is positive and the other negative, with the ground being ground. As the two systems get closer to each other, the disruption in the atmosphere caused the discharge of positive electrons across the pressure zones creating a static discharge in the form of lightening, most of the time the lightening strikes from positive to negative between the clouds, however many times the discharge is so massive it goes to ground. Thunder is the sound the lightening makes as it breaks the sound barrier of approximately 720 mile per hour when flashing between positive and negative poles.
382607
Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud, many small bits of ice bump into each other as they swirl around in the air. All those collisions create an electrical charge, just like the one that builds up in you when you cross a carpet.\n\nAfter a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges (usually with a negative charge closest to the earth). Since opposites attract each other, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The ground's electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, lone trees, people, or even blades of grass. The charge streaming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds, and--zap!--lightning strikes.\n\nThe intense heat of the lightning bolt causes the surrounding air to explode outward with a gigantic boom--thunder.
222480
Thundersnow is a particularly rare meteorological phenomenon that includes the typical behavior of a thunderstorm, but with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain.\n\nThere are usually two forms of thundersnow:\n\nA normal thunderstorm on the leading edge of a cold front that passes over a colder body of water (with subsequently colder air around it) which in turn maintains the precipitation as snow. \nA heavy snowstorm that catches a warm draft of air which allows favorable conditions for lightning and thunder to occur. \nOne unique aspect of thundersnow is that the snowfall acts as an acoustic suppressor of the thunder. The thunder from a typical thunderstorm can be heard many kilometres away, while the thunder from thundersnow can usually only be heard within a two to three kilometer radius from the lightning.\n\nThundersnow, while rare anywhere, is more common with lake-effect snows in the Great Lakes area of the United States and Canada, the midwestern U.S., the Great Salt Lake, and has also been reported around the Sea of Japan and even around Mount Everest during expeditions. When such storms happen at ski areas, the mountain is often evacuated for safety.\n\nThundersnow was reported in metro Atlanta during the Great Blizzard of 1993, and in greater New York (and other areas) during the Blizzard of 2006. During a thundersnow event in late March 1997, lightning struck the main ski lift at the Angelfire Resort in Angelfire, New Mexico after closing time. This caused no injuries, but damaged the only lift providing access to and from the operating part of the mountain. Large snow pellets were also reported from this storm.