Rare Thundersnow Event Sweeps Across Australia’s Blue Mountains

A rare thundersnow hit the Blue Mountains in southeast Australia Saturday night. The weather event was also experienced in the nearby town of Orange, News Corp Australia reports.

Weatherzone forecaster Rob Sharpe explained that the unusual meteorological phenomenon was the result of the Arctic vortex pushing against a body of warm, humid air.

"We had a very strong cold front move through and because there was some warm, humid air ahead of the front and some very dry, cold air behind the front, the interaction of those air masses and the strong winds meant that we had some thunderstorms move along the ranges," Sharpe said, according to 9 News.

Thundersnow is like a thunderstorm in that thunder and lightning occur, but snow falls instead of rain. The snow that falls during a thundersnow is unlike the snow that falls during a typical snowstorm, and the sound of thunder in a thundersnow is slightly muffled by the presence of snow.

"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. There's usually a bit of hail that comes with it as well," Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Mick Logan told Sydney Morning Herald.

"It happens when the atmosphere is so cold that instead of getting rain, the bulk of the precipitation is snow," Logan explained. He also said he had never seen a thundersnow occur in the Blue Mountains before, but because they don't keep records of such occurrence, there is no information about how often thunderstorms occur, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The residents of affected areas enjoyed the rare meteorological display and shared their experiences on Twitter.