Thunder and lightning in January. People associated bad omens with winter thunderstorms
There is something magical and mysterious about the rumble of thunder and flashes of lightning. It is not surprising that people have long been looking for some signs and symbols in these phenomena of capricious nature. The most wonderful event is a thunderstorm in January, because such phenomena are not typical for this time of year.
A thunderstorm as a natural phenomenon contains several components - black clouds, rain, hail, frequent lightning and powerful peals of thunder. Very rarely does a thunderstorm occur in winter. Long-term observations indicate that in winter a thunderstorm occurs once every seven years.
Features of a winter thunderstorm, folk signs
According to well-known natural laws, the peak of thunderstorms occurs in May. It is during this spring month that electrical discharges occur when cold and warm air masses mix in the atmosphere. As biologist and local historian Sergei Torop said, a thunderstorm in winter is not an isolated, but extremely rare phenomenon. According to average statistics, nature presents such surprises approximately once every 7-8 years.
Folk omens do not favor thunderstorms in winter. To trust them or not is a personal matter for everyone, but man is inextricably linked with nature, so signs often provide an explanation for obvious facts. What did they say in ancient times about winter thunderstorms?
Folk signs:
- Thunder on bare trees means a hungry year, and lightning in winter means a storm. Moreover, thunder in early January can foreshadow state conflicts, the collapse of powers, various disasters and cataclysms.
- Thunder rumbles in the winter months - there will be famine. This is connected with another sign - about a thunderstorm on a bare forest. This is possible either in the winter months or in early spring. In any case, thunder and lightning falling on a bare forest foreshadows famine and disasters for the people.
- Lightning flashes in winter - a sign of violent winds and storms.
- Lightning flashes without thunder - for a dry summer.
Thunderstorms still remain one of the most mysterious natural phenomena. In the old days, it was believed that it was God’s punishment, and lightning was God’s main assistant in deciding destinies.
To protect themselves from thunderstorms and God's wrath, our ancestors used various means. Thus, it was customary to keep a black cat or dog in the house, which with its energy protected the owners from thunderstorms. And to prevent lightning from striking the building, birch branches, consecrated in the church on Trinity Sunday, were inserted into the window openings and cracks in the roof.
Of course, folk signs are not the ultimate truth, however, they carry the wisdom of our ancestors and our people. Therefore, you should listen to beliefs, but we’ll see whether they come true or not.
Snow thunderstorm, what kind of phenomenon
A snow thunderstorm (also a snow thunderstorm) is a rather rare meteorological phenomenon, a thunderstorm in which instead of heavy rain, heavy snow, freezing rain or ice pellets fall. The term is used mainly in popular science and foreign literature. There is no such term in professional Russian meteorology: in such cases, a thunderstorm and heavy snow are observed simultaneously.
Cases of winter thunderstorms are noted in ancient Russian chronicles: thunderstorms in winter in 1383 (there was “very terrible thunder and a strong whirlwind”), in 1396 (in Moscow on December 25 “... there was thunder, and the cloud was from the midday country”), in 1447 year (in Novgorod on November 13 “...at midnight there was a terrible thunder and great lightning”), in 1491 (in Pskov on January 2 thunder was heard).
The phenomenon is observed in the cold season on the shores of unfrozen seas and large lakes (lake effect). It is most often observed in North America (about 6.3 cases per year), in the United States and Canada: East Coast, New England, Great Lakes Region, Nova Scotia, as well as in Scandinavia, northern Europe. For example, an intense snow storm was observed in New Jersey in December 2010.
Examples of snow thunderstorms in Russia
In Moscow, a snow thunderstorm was observed on December 17, 1995, December 18, 2006, December 26, 2011, February 1, 2015 and January 19, 2019.
In Murmansk, this phenomenon was repeated in 2001, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
On January 30, 2017, there was a winter thunderstorm in Sochi: it was snowing and at the same time lightning flashed and thunder roared.
On February 27, 2017 at 23:30 in Nizhnevartovsk, residents witnessed thunder and lightning, immediately after which a snowstorm began.
On February 18, 2018 at 1:00 in Novocherkassk, Rostov region, eyewitnesses filmed lightning and thunder during a snowfall.
On November 9, 2018 at 18:30 in the city of Birobidzhan it snowed with strong winds, during which thunder could be heard and lightning could be seen.
People have always paid great attention to thunderstorms. It was they who were associated with most of the dominant mythological images, and speculation was made around their appearance. Science figured this out relatively recently - in the 18th century. Many people are still tormented by the question: why is there no thunderstorms in winter? We will deal with this later in the article.
How does a thunderstorm happen?
Simple physics is at work here. A thunderstorm is a natural phenomenon in the layers of the atmosphere. It differs from an ordinary shower in that during any thunderstorm, strong electrical discharges arise, uniting cumulus rain clouds with each other or with the ground. These discharges are also accompanied by loud sounds of thunder. The wind often increases, sometimes reaching the squall-hurricane threshold, and hail occurs. Shortly before the start, the air usually becomes stuffy and humid, reaching a high temperature.
Types of thunderstorm
There are two main types of thunderstorms:
intramass;
frontal.
Intramass thunderstorms arise as a result of excessive heating of the air and, accordingly, the collision of hot air at the surface of the earth with cold air above. Because of this feature, they are quite strictly time-bound and, as a rule, begin in the afternoon. They can also pass over the sea at night, while moving over the heat-giving surface of the water.
Frontal thunderstorms occur when two fronts of air - warm and cold - collide. They do not have any specific dependence on the time of day.
The frequency of thunderstorms depends on the average temperatures in the region where they occur. The lower the temperature, the less often they will happen. At the poles they can be found only once every few years, and they run out extremely quickly. Indonesia, for example, is famous for its frequent, prolonged thunderstorms, which can occur more than two hundred times a year. They do, however, avoid deserts and other areas where it rarely rains.
Why do thunderstorms happen?
The key reason for the occurrence of a thunderstorm is precisely the uneven heating of the air. The higher the temperature difference between the ground and the altitude, the stronger and more frequent the thunderstorms will be. The question remains open: why is there no thunderstorms in winter?
The mechanism of how this phenomenon occurs is as follows: warm air from the ground, according to the law of heat exchange, tends upward, while cold air from the top of the cloud, together with the ice floes contained in it, falls down. As a result of this circulation, two opposite-polar electric charges arise in parts of the cloud that maintain different temperatures: positively charged particles accumulate at the bottom, and negatively charged ones at the top.
Each time they collide, a huge spark jumps between two parts of the cloud, which, in fact, is lightning. The sound of the explosion with which this spark tears apart the hot air is the well-known thunder. The speed of light is higher than the speed of sound, so lightning and thunder do not reach us at the same time.
Types of lightning
Everyone has seen an ordinary spark of lightning more than once and certainly heard about it. However, this does not exhaust the variety of lightning caused by thunderstorms.
There are four main types:
- Lightning-sparks striking among the clouds and not touching the ground.
- Ribbon lightning, connecting clouds and earth, is the most dangerous lightning that should be feared most.
- Horizontal lightning cutting the sky below the cloud level. They are considered especially dangerous for residents of upper floors, since they can descend quite low, but do not come into contact with the ground.
- Ball lightning.
The answer to this question is quite simple. Why don't there thunderstorms in winter? Due to low temperatures near the earth's surface. There is no sharp contrast between the warm air heated below and the cold air from the upper layers of the atmosphere, thus the electrical charge contained in the clouds is always negative. That's why there are no thunderstorms in winter.
Of course, it follows from this that in hot countries where the temperature in winter remains positive, they continue to occur regardless of the time of year. Accordingly, in the coldest parts of the world, for example in the Arctic or Antarctica, thunderstorms are the greatest rarity, comparable to rain in the desert.
A spring thunderstorm usually begins in late March or April, when the snow has almost completely melted. Its appearance means that the earth has warmed up enough to give off heat and be ready for sowing. Therefore, many folk signs are associated with spring thunderstorms.
An early spring thunderstorm can be harmful to the earth: as a rule, it occurs during abnormally warm days, when the weather has not yet settled, and brings with it unnecessary humidity. After this, the ground is often covered with ice, it freezes and provides a poor harvest.
Precautions during a thunderstorm
To avoid lightning strikes, you should not stop near tall objects, especially single ones - trees, pipes and others. If possible, it is generally better not to be on a hill.
Water is an excellent conductor of electricity, so the first rule for those caught in a thunderstorm is to stay out of the water. After all, if lightning strikes a body of water even at a considerable distance, the discharge will easily reach a person standing in it. The same applies to damp earth, so contact with them should be minimal, and clothing and body should be as dry as possible.
Do not come into contact with household electrical appliances or mobile phones.
If a thunderstorm finds you in a car, it is better not to leave it; rubber tires provide good insulation.
Operation Winter Storm
The Wehrmacht High Command was preparing to release the troops encircled in the Stalingrad area. To solve this problem, the enemy created Army Group Don. It included all the troops located south of the middle reaches of the Don to the Astrakhan steppes, and the encircled group of Paulus. Field Marshal Manstein was appointed commander. Troops were hastily transferred from the Caucasus, from Voronezh, Orel, as well as from France, Poland and Germany to strengthen Army Group Don. In front of the troops of the Southwestern Front there were 17 divisions from the Don Army Group, and 13 divisions under the command of General Hoth opposed the troops of the 5th Shock and 51st Armies of the Stalingrad Front. The enemy command gave the order to conduct Operation Winter Storm. It was originally planned to begin on December 10, but the offensive actions of the Red Army on the external front of the encirclement forced the start of the operation to be postponed to December 12.
On the morning of December 12, German troops of the Hoth group went on the offensive from the Kotelnikov area, delivering the main blow along the Tikhoretsk-Stalingrad railway. The troops of the 51st Army of the Stalingrad Front opposing the enemy here had significantly fewer forces and means. The Nazis, having a particularly large superiority in the number of tanks and aircraft, broke through the Soviet defenses and by the evening of the first day reached the southern bank of the Aksai River. Within a few days, the formation of the 51st Army under the command of Major General N.I. Trufanov fought fierce battles, holding back the enemy’s onslaught on the northern bank of the Aksai River. Taking advantage of their superiority, the Germans crossed this river and began to advance to the next line, the Myshkova River.
A fierce tank battle unfolded between the Aksai and Myshkova rivers. There was a particularly stubborn struggle for the Verkhne-Kumsky farmstead.
The enemy Kotelnikov group, having suffered huge losses, nevertheless broke through to the Myshkova River. There were only 35-40 kilometers left to the surrounded Paulus group. However, the enemy's plans were never realized.
Formations of the 2nd Guards Army were already approaching the line of the Myshkova River, which delayed the further advance of the Kotelnikov group. On the morning of December 24, the 2nd Guards and 51st armies went on the offensive. Breaking the enemy's resistance, Soviet troops successfully advanced and on December 29 cleared the city and the Kotelnikovo railway station from Nazi troops. Army group "Goth" was defeated.
The German command was powerless to restore the front on the Volga. Moreover, during the December operations on the middle Don and in the Kotelnikovo area, the enemy suffered huge losses. Manstein's troops, having suffered defeat, retreated to the south, beyond Manych.
Thunderstorms in winter are a very rare occurrence. More often thunderstorms and lightning can be seen in spring and summer. However, today the planet is undergoing climate change and global warming is evident. This is what causes this unusual natural phenomenon.
Statistics show that thunderstorms and lightning occur approximately once every 7-8 years during the winter months. As a rule, the air temperature is 5-6 degrees Celsius, and rain or sleet and hail fall from the sky. And what people say about thunderstorms in winter is further in the article.
What does a thunderstorm mean in winter?
Folk signs and beliefs came to us from ancient times. To trust them or not is a personal matter for everyone, however, a person is inextricably linked with nature, and often signs provide an explanation for obvious facts. What did they say in ancient times about winter thunderstorms? Signs of thunderstorms in winter do not favor:
- thunder in winter means that there will be a hungry year;
- lightning in winter - wait for a storm;
- thunder at the beginning of January foreshadows wars, state conflicts, collapses of countries, disasters and cataclysms;
- if the first rumbles of thunder are heard from the north, expect a cold summer, and if from the south, the summer will be sunny and warm;
- What does a thunderstorm mean in the winter in the morning? This means that summer will be neutral – not hot and not cold.
Thunderstorms still remain one of the most mysterious natural phenomena. In the old days, it was believed that it was God’s punishment, and lightning was God’s main assistant in deciding destinies.
To protect themselves from thunderstorms and God's wrath, our ancestors used various means. Thus, it was customary to keep a black cat or dog in the house, which with its energy protected the owners from thunderstorms. And to prevent lightning from striking the building, birch branches, consecrated in the church on.
Of course, folk signs are not the ultimate truth, however, they carry the wisdom of our ancestors and our people. Therefore, you should listen to beliefs, but we’ll see whether they come true or not.
We all know the famous phrase about “thunderstorm in early May” from childhood. And at other times of the year, we also often encounter this natural phenomenon. However, with the onset of winter, we forget about thunderstorms, turning our attention to snow and blizzards. Some of us do not even suspect that in this cold time this natural phenomenon can also surprise us with its appearance. However, this is more an anomaly than a pattern. So why doesn’t nature please thunderstorm lovers in winter? We will answer this question in this article.
How does a thunderstorm appear?
In order to understand why we do not encounter thunderstorms in the winter season, it is necessary to understand the very mechanism of formation of this natural phenomenon.
So, in order for a thunderstorm front to form in the sky, several components are necessary:
- Moisture, which is contained in the air. When the air rises during the warm season, it cools. Thanks to this, the moisture in the air turns into very small droplets and turns into a cloud.
- Air flows. In order for a cloud to turn from an ordinary cumulus cloud into a real thundercloud, rising currents of warm air are needed that come from the heated earth. These flows carry with them lighter and faster small drops of moisture, which on their way collide with large ones that fall down. During these collisions, electrification occurs, and moisture particles receive their charges: small ones - positive, and large ones - negative.
- Pressure drop. This is exactly the element that causes that very moisture to spill onto the ground in the form of rain. The difference occurs due to the fact that small drops carrying a positive discharge collect in the upper part of the cloud. And larger ones, the charge of which is negative, move to the bottom. Thus, the cloud turns out to be the center of the generation of electrical energy. Next, the negative charge from the cloud is directed to the ground, which means that a phenomenon such as lightning occurs.
Thus, in order for a thunderstorm to begin and rain to fall on the ground, moist and well-heated air is needed. It is in the summer that most often all the necessary components come together, and we can observe the bad weather.
Why is there no thunderstorm, thunder and lightning in winter?
By carefully studying the entire process of thunderstorm front formation, we can easily answer this question. Rain, thunder and lightning in winter are extremely rare, almost impossible, because None of the above factors are appropriate for this time of year.
- In winter, the air can hardly be called humid, since the cold prevents the formation of excess water in the atmosphere. Any excess moisture in the air, due to low temperatures, instantly freezes and falls to the ground as precipitation in the form of snow;
- Changes in pressure and temperature also do not occur as often as in the warm season, because there is no movement of flows of cold and warm air;
- One of the main factors that causes moisture droplets in the atmosphere to become electrified, leading to the formation of a thunderstorm, is energy. And the main source of energy is, of course, sunlight, which is not enough in winter.
So, the most important reason that there are no thunderstorms, lightning and thunder in winter is the lack of solar heat. It is because of this that the air becomes cold, which prevents the formation of excess moisture in the atmosphere.
In addition, at this time of year the earth cools down significantly, so warm air currents do not rise upward and there is no pressure drop.
Are there thunderstorms in winter?
Despite the fact that, as already mentioned, the formation of a thunderstorm front in the cold season is almost impossible, meteorology knows many exceptions to this rule. These exceptions can most often be observed in southern territories located near large bodies of water.
Air currents and cyclones can often bring powerful air masses full of moisture from the oceans and seas. In this case, the formation of a thunderstorm is simply inevitable. However, this phenomenon cannot be observed very often.
In addition, mountain formations can often be found in such areas, which also greatly influences the behavior of air masses. When warm and moist air brought from the sea collides with mountain ranges, it overcomes it, rapidly cooling. These conditions are best for condensation, and when it forms, clouds appear.
However, they do not always become thunderstorms, sometimes freezing at the top. In this case, we can observe the usual beautiful landscape: a mountain peak buried in foamy white clouds.
Snow storm
Another example of thunder and lightning occurring during winter is the formation snowy or snow thunderstorms
A snow thunderstorm is a very rare meteorological phenomenon, which is truly lucky from a scientific point of view to observe. However, for ordinary people, such bad weather brings rather inconvenience.
The main difference between a snow thunderstorm and any other is that it can only be encountered in the winter season. In addition, during this phenomenon, instead of heavy rain, heavy snow begins, accompanied by thunder, lightning and strong gusts of wind carrying ice chips.
Fortunately, such blizzards and blizzards are quite rare, so this bad weather does not bring big problems.
A special place
Despite all the anomalies, throughout the planet thunderstorms naturally appear more often in summer than in winter. However, there is one special place on Earth that does not obey this rule.
On the territory of the northwestern coast of the Sea of Japan, thunderstorm fronts can be encountered much more often in winter than in summer. This is due to the fact that in the cold season there is a collision of two opposite air masses: dry and cold, brought from Eastern Siberia, and humid and warm, which comes from the Tsushima Strait. As a result of their collision, heavy low clouds are formed, highly elongated horizontally, which later turn into thunderstorms.
Lightning here also has its own characteristics. They are formed much lower and carry a more powerful charge, several times greater than that contained in ordinary lightning. The number of lightning here also exceeds the statistical average, however, fortunately, for the most part they do not reach the ground and strike the sea.
Thus, ordinary thunderstorms in winter are quite rare. For a thunderstorm to form during the cold season, a number of factors are required that are usually not so easy to put together during this period. However, there are some exceptions, which, fortunately, are quite rare.
Video: is it possible for thunderstorms to occur in winter?
In this video, Dmitry Pobedinsky will tell you why, from a physics point of view, thunderclouds cannot form in winter: