When I was a little boy, Hurricane Agnes blew through Virginia causing massive flooding and we lost our home. I remember bits and pieces of the event (I was like 4 years old), mainly scrambling for higher ground. When I was a teenager, we were on a cross country trip and driving through Oklahoma when a small tornado dropped out of the sky on top of our car. The wind, chunks of hail, flying debris, etc… scared us stiff.
I then graduated from High school, Married, and took a job in California. It was there that Wendy & I experienced our first earthquake. It was the Northridge “Quake” of 1992 and it killed 60 people, injured another 7,000 and destroyed over 20,000 homes. Another event California treated me to that year was the Rodney King Riots which wasn’t very fun at all. I won’t even go into the Mud Slides, or Wild Fires that were ever present. Nor will I even talk about being around for the “Birth” of high speed police pursuits televised nightly at the dinner table.
Now that I’ve made it back to the East Coast, Mother Nature has been much nicer to me. Tonight, something happened here on my little mountain that I’ve only had the opportunity to witness on one other occasion during my lifetime. There was Thunder-Snow. Huh? What the heck is Thunder Snow you ask? It was snowing outside and there was also lightning and thunder. It’s a very strange phenomenon and not very common but I must say the effect is beautiful, especially at night when a lightning bolt streaks across the sky and illuminates against the falling snow. The sound of the thunder then reverberates off the snow causing a very low rumble that shakes the house.
You don’t believe me? Google it!
I have experienced thundersnows and find them very neat, but it also feels a little freaky!
I googled how cool is this thunder snow????!!!!!
AMAZING did you get any pics of the lightning??
Did you Google search the images for thunder snow??
Cool too!!! Check it out…Learn something new everyday. Take care yall, Stephanie
I have never heard of this very strange phenomenon Mike. I think it’s all in that very strange phenomenon called your head. HAHAHAHA!!!
When I lived up your way we experienced Thunder Snow too and it is absolutely facinating. The East Coast also experiences what NOAAH calls White Hurricanes. A blizzard that takes on all the characteristics of a hurricane.
There is another phenomena we see very rarely here in The Great White North. It’s the Northern Lights against a late night snow. Very cool indeed!
Then again, James may be right about you, Mike!
Cackle-cackle!!!!!!!!!
My Uncle James has always been a bit “nutty” and not very internet savvy at all. He’d rather give me a hard time than type a couple of keywords into a search engine to prove or disprove his nonsensical thoughts. Besides, I grew up with him and he was into some Weird stuff… for example, he liked the Rock Band KISS. He also played the Trumpet in the band. He parted his hair on the side, and chased girls he never had a chance with!
When was the last time one of these “Blizzard Hurricanes” hit Phyllis? I’m not at all familiar with them.
No Stephanie, sorry but I didn’t manage to get any pix. It was a very brief event and trying to catch a flash of lighting in a still photo is beyond my capabilities! I’m still waiting for a good old fashioned snow storm to come along to provide you with the promised “goods” but Mother Nature is definitely not cooperating at all this year. Very strange the weather has been of late!
Hi Mike! I TOTALLY believe you, we actually had the same here about a month or so ago. I had never even heard of it before then. I hope Wendy and the kids are well!……Tasha
Mike –
See the NOAA article I e-mailed you about White Hurricanes.