Thundersnow Is Fascinating And Actually Does Happen In Wyoming

As a kid, thundersnow was one of the weirdest and coolest things I encountered. It's the middle of winter and there was lightning, thunder and a heavy downpour of snow. Not something that happens every snowstorm, for sure, but still very cool if you get the experience.

When the conditions are just right, a thunderstorm can develop when the temperatures are cold. When this storm is building, and gets to about 25,000 feet, it can create lightning. Just like the summer storms, where there's lightning, there's going to be thunder. The difference is, it's cold and snowing. When thunder occurs during a snowstorm, you're going to experience large amounts of snow, just like the heavy rains during a thunderstorm in the summer.

Can and does Wyoming actually experience thundersnow?

Sure does.

In the Spring of last year, when Wyoming was walloped by those huge snowstorms, thundersnow was captured on video in Evanston.

@foxweather Volume up 🔈 Thundersnow in Evanston, Wyoming on April 18. ❄️⚡️ #thundersnow #evanstonwyoming #wyoming #snow #thunder ♬ original sound - FOX Weather

Thundersnow was even captured in Casper and shared on the K2 Radio Facebook page back in 2021.

Weather has always been an interest of mine, and I've gone on quite a few storm chases in the past. Even though I'm not on the road searching them out, I am still in contact with storm chasers in other parts of the country. When I asked about thundersnow, they admitted it's a rare and special occurrence, they'd only experienced one time in their storm chasing career.

Even meteorologists get fired up when they experience the thundersnow phenomenon. The Weather Channels Jim Cantore, who is known as the guy on camera and involved with nearly every major weather event in the US, gets really fired up when thundersnow occurs.