Thundersnow, the rare occurrence of snowfall during a thunderstorm, occurred across Australia's Blue Mountains Saturday night, lighting up the sky and social media.
Mick Logan, a forecaster with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, said the unusual weather event may have surprised some as the system crossed the
Blue Mountains region, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"You get the bang and the rumble but instead of it being dominated by rain and hail, it's all snow that's coming out of the system," Logan said. "There's usually a bit of hail that comes with it as well. It happens when the atmosphere is so cold that instead of getting rain, the bulk of the precipitation is snow."
Logan told News.com that it was rare to get thunderstorm conditions during the winter months in Australia, giving weather-watchers the unusual experience.
"Typically for [New South Wales], we experience most of our thunderstorms in summer," he said. "But thunderstorms can happen any time of the year if atmospheric conditions are right. Last night we had a series of strong fronts coming through, with really cold air at the mid-levels of the atmosphere that allowed the line of thunderstorms to form."
Australian weather enthusiast Lindsay Pearce, who operates blackheathweather.com, recorded the thundersnow.
"Thundersnow is so rare in Australia, especially outside the alpine regions, that the Weather Bureau keeps no data on its occurrence," News.com noted, stating that an Antarctic vortex ushered in the system that created the rare weather phenomena.
Many Australians shared the thundersnow news on social media.
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