Joe Yates
Thundersnow is a term that I'm fairly certain 99 percent of us have never heard of... it's just snow, isn't it?
Well, apparently it's a little more than that as a video has gone viral of weatherman Jim Cantore freaking out after hearing the phenomenon take place in Kansas City on live TV, leaving viewers of The Weather Channel extremely worried.
But first, what on Earth is thundersnow?
Advert
Well, the Met Office, the UK's national meteorological service, describes it as 'when thunderstorms form in wintry conditions they can sometimes give rise to heavy downpours of snow which are often called thundersnow'.
"Thundersnow is unusual only because it can only occur in a few months of the year," it adds.
Touching on what it actually looks like, the service continued: "When thundersnow occurs at night the lightning appears brighter - this is because the light reflects off the snowflakes.
"Interestingly, the snow contained within the thunderstorm acts to dampen the sound of the thunder.
"While the thunder from a typical thunderstorm might be heard many miles away, the thunder during a thundersnow event will only be heard if you are within 2 to 3 miles of the lightning."
So, I'm guessing the meteorologist was going crazy as he knew it meant that the lighting was extremely close, and I'm sure with it being his job, he was probably a tad bit excited.
"Was that another? No it wasn't, that was the flash" he says, before immediately hearing thunder echo from the distance as lightning crashes down close to him.
"Yes it was!"
"See! See! I told you! We just had it again," he shouts.
"Guys that's number seven, that's number seven. Thundersnow here in Kansas City, now we've had a couple bolts. So, this is the energy coming up again from the south and what's really interesting, notice we can't even see the city now it's all like a white-out.
"So the visibility has gone down the snow intensity come up. Think about it when you're in rain, a lot of times when you're in a thunderstorm it's heavier precipitation and that's exactly what we've got going on.
"The same thing is happening in a thunderstorm it's just happening above the cold air so it's all frozen, it's all frozen. So, that's what we've got going on here in Kansas City. Woo!"
The video of Cantore was shared to Twitter and his epic enthusiasm has been enjoyed more than 800,000 times.