Why are their no lighting storms in winter?

Question

Why are their no lighting storms in winter?

Answer 1

there can be but its less likely. because lightning storms forms when cold and warm air clash and the clouds and grounds positive and negative ions exchange and there is a lightning bolt.

I am sorry If what I typed isn't so clear but I'm trying to remember what was said in science class and reciting it in my own words.

Answer 2

There can be, but they are much less common.  Thunderstorms (lightning storms) require a decent amount of instability, the tendency for air to rise, in order to build up enough to generate an electrical field capable of producing lightning.  The colder air typical of winter is relatively heavy and stable, thus storms have a much harder time forming, if at all.  Sometimes you can get a situation where there is cold and stable air at the surface, but above that air will exist a layer of warmer and unstable air, which can allow for storm formation.

Answer 3

Just like the top contributor stated, cold air mass is usually stable.  Yet, back in 1966, in the Pittsburgh, PA area, a thunderstorm and lightning on day before Christmas. Produced a tremendous winter snow, woke up Christmas Day with over 4 feet new snow on the ground from this energized storm.

Answer 4

It does happen. It is called thundersnow. Read on...

Lightning occurs less frequently in the winter because there is not as much instability and moisture in the atmosphere as there is in the summer. These two ingredients work together to make convective storms that can produce lightning. Without instability and moisture, strong thunderstorms are unlikely.

During the winter, the land surface is cooler because there is not as much heating by the sun to warm it up. Without warm surface temperatures, the near-surface air wouldn't rise in the atmosphere very far. Thus, the kinds of deep (8-15 km deep) thunderstorms that develop in the summertime wouldn't develop.

Warm air holds more water vapor. And, when water vapor condenses into liquid water cloud drops, latent heat is released which fuels the thunderstorm. So, warm, moist air near the surface (and the proper conditions aloft to give you lots of instability) can result in deep convection, which may produce lightning discharges.

Clouds become electrified when strong updrafts (fueled by the instability and moisture) bring supercooled liquid water drops and ice crystals at temperatures less than freezing (0 deg C) together. In this environment, interactions between the ice crystals and supercooled water droplets produce electric charges. The exact mechanisms by which this charging happens remain unknown. The electrical charges build up until they are strong enough to overcome the resistance of the surrounding air. The breakdown of the electric fields produced by these charges is the lightning bolt. *Credit to my friend sean for writing and giving me part of this*

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/faq/faq_ltg.php

Answer 5

Here in northeast Ohio (my location), I occasionally experience thunder snow from the lake-effect scenario that so often sets up here during winter.

A large enough body of water (in this case, Lake Erie) can influence the weather locally. Lake Erie is to my north and northwest. When a strong cold front pushes through, the northwesterly wind behind that front brings in cold, dry air in the winter. This blows across Lake Erie, which is still warmer than the air, and the cold air over warm water creates low-level instability in otherwise stable air. Lake effect clouds do not have much height to them because of the otherwise stable atmosphere in which they develop, but they can be strong enough to lightning/thunder while dumping snow. It is a rare phenomenon, but one of my favorites.