Thunderstorms are common in the prairies, but thundersnow? That doesn’t happen very often.
But the rare weather phenomenon has been part of the early blast of winter pummeling southern Manitoba.
Thunderstorm activity associated with a Colorado Low’s winter storm began Friday morning close to the American border.
Around the Vita area, thunderstorm activity was observed and radar imagery shows thunderstorms taking place in an area of mixed precipitation or ice pellets and snow as well.
These thunderstorms continued and moved further north.
Thunderstorms can be seen on the radar imagery around the Steinbach area.
Then, around 10:30 a.m., thundersnow was observed on radar imagery around Elie, west of Winnipeg.
There also appeared to more lightning at this time east of Winnipeg close to Oak Lake and Windy Lake, north of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Thunderstorms in the snow are harder to hear so you may not have heard them — but if you saw any of the lightning, you’ve witnessed an uncommon event.