Beware thundersnow, for U.S. scientists say when a snowstorm produces lightning and thunder it often is the precursor to 10 inches or more of snowfall.
University of Missouri-Columbia Associate Professor Patrick Market and undergraduate student Christina Crowe examined the Midwest portion of the United States between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains.
Crowe and Market analyzed accumulation levels between 1961 and 1990. With data from airport reporting and cooperative climate observer stations, they focused on 22 storms across the upper Midwest.
They found that within a 68-mile radius of where thundersnow occurred 6 or more inches of snow fell 86 percent of the time and 10 or more inches fell 45 percent of the time.
The researchers say thundersnow occurs about 12 times per year in the Midwestern United States. It most recently occurred last month in Missouri as a major snowstorm dropped about 16 inches of snow, closing roads, schools and businesses.
The study is to appear in the Dec. 22 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
