Met Mailbag is your chance to have a Weather Plus Meteorologist answer your weather question. Each Thursday, our NBC Weather Pulse Blog will publish the answers to questions you send us. This week's question was answered by NBC Weather Plus Meteorologist Jackie Meretsky.

Question: What is thunder snow?
Submitted by Matt Gold, Santa Monica, California

Answer: I hope you were able to witness the snow that fell last week in the mountains above Malibu! I find California to be an extraordinary state because of its meteorological diversity. From exploring the vineyards in Napa Valley, to skiing in Tahoe or just watching the sunset form the Santa Monica pier, California provides one of the most picturesque backdrops in the world.

Since you live in California, you probably don’t see thunder snow too often, if ever. This phenomenon is more common with lake-effect snow generated across the Great Lakes in the Midwest. One of the last recorded instances of thunder snow in your home state was in the Sierra Nevadas in November 2000.

Think of thunder snow as a thunderstorm with snow falling instead of rain. The main component is that strong upward motion within the cold sector of an extra tropical cyclone. This normally occurs between fall and spring when surface temperatures are near the freezing mark. Your best chance at seeing and hearing thunder snow is in March.

This can happen in three ways:

• Cold air pushing across milder lake water which we call lake effect snow. The main factors with this type of thunder snow are wind shear and a steepened lapse rate between the temperature aloft and the lake water temperature. To put it another way, Mother Nature does not take temperature clashes well and often responds with dramatic results which we witness when the seasons change.
• A thunderstorm that either forms in a winter environment or one which runs into cool air and produces snow.
• A large scale snowstorm in the comma head (northwest side) of an extra tropical cyclone with strong vertical mixing producing lightning and thunder. In some cases, thunder snow is found underneath a trough of warm air aloft (a trowal).

Thunder snow differs from a typical thunderstorm not just because of the precipitation, but because of the relationship between the snow and the thunder in that it suppresses the thunder acoustically. So, you can only hear the thunder within a two to three kilometer radius, which only further limits your chances of hearing this unique phenomenon.

Thanks for the question Matt!

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