To his happy surprise, it turns out this weekend’s storm was a rare “thundersnow” event in which the blizzard was punctuated by occasional bursts of lightning. The Weather Channel itself has ...

And in Astoria, frosty conditions have brought about another unusual weather phenomenon: thundersnow.

However, police said that what people were actually hearing was the weather phenomenon known as "thundersnow". Two "extraordinarily loud" thunder claps were heard over the capital just before 05:00.