Buffalo Experienced Thunder Snow Today

A very unusual weather event happened in Western New York this morning.

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During the early morning snowstorm, we expected snow, wind, and whiteout conditions but one thing happened that wasn't expected and it usually doesn't happen during a snowstorm.

THUNDER-SNOW

Yep, this snowstorm could bring the rare and unusual thunder-snow to Western New York. So what is thunder-snow exactly?

Glad you asked. It is a thunderstorm that brings snow instead of rain. So why is that unusual? Well, most times thunderstorms happen only in warm temperatures. According to the USA Today, the thunderstorm is caused by convection:

Thunder and lightning are much more common in warm-season storms because of convection, the upward motion of air that helps produce thunderstorms. It's fairly rare to have convection within a winter storm

Thunder-snow is so rare, that the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore freaks out with excitement when he gets a chance to experience it.

Now the bad news with Thunder-snow. It really only happens when a lot of snow is expected during a snowstorm. The good news is that we didn't get snow in feet but just in inches.

The biggest amount of snow looks like it will hit downtown Buffalo and slightly north of the city.

There were really bad driving conditions on Saturday morning and through the afternoon. If possible stay off the roads or use extreme caution if you do have to get out on the roads.

This is the second time we have had thunder snow so far this year.