Thundersnow

When I went to bed last night, I knew snow was in the forecast, and expected to wake up to a white world.

What I didn't expect was to be awakened at 4 a.m. with a loud roar of THUNDER. It kind of freaked me out a little, but poor Mimi was more terrified than I have ever seen her. She jumped off the bed, tucked her tail in, hid under a chair (it would presumably save her from being crushed if the sky fell on her), and wouldn't come out for hours. Not even the fireworks of Chinese New Year scared Mimi like this did.

I wondered how our snow storm could have changed into a thunderstorm. I peeked out the window and was surprised to see it was actually snowing after hearing that sound. I've never known of thunder and snow occurring in the same weather event. 

So then, I went back to bed, and I wondered if a meteor had possibly flown through the air like one did in Russia a few days ago. Yeah, that must be it. It surely could not have been thunder, right?

But I got on the Internet this morning, and sure enough, there is a rare phenomenon known as "thundersnow." 

Thundersnow is known for producing thick snow fast. True to form, this is the most snow we've ever gotten in such a short period of time, in all MY days in the Middle Kingdom at least. If you want to see a video of thundersnow -- not MY video, just some random video -- you can see it here: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/08/thundersnow.html

I thought when I moved south I was moving to balmy weather. We've had snow about 4-5 times already this winter. What's up with that?