Why is there no thunderstorm in winter? Why is there no thunderstorm in winter? Snowstorm in Russia

Why, why?..

Why, why?..

? Why are there no thunderstorms in winter?

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, having written “I love a thunderstorm in early May, / / ​​When the first thunder of spring ...”, obviously also knew that there are no thunderstorms in winter. But why, in fact, they do not happen in winter? To answer this question, let's first look at where electric charges appear in the cloud. Until the end, the mechanisms of charge separation in the cloud have not yet been elucidated, however, according to modern concepts, storm cloud is a factory for the production of electric charges.

A thundercloud contains a huge amount of vapor, some of which has condensed into tiny droplets or ice floes. The top of a thundercloud can be at a height of 6–7 km, and the bottom hangs over the ground at a height of 0.5–1 km. Above 3–4 km, the clouds consist of ice floes of various sizes; the temperature is always below zero.

The ice particles in the cloud are constantly moving due to the ascending currents of warm air from the heated surface of the earth. At the same time, small ice floes are easier than large ones to be carried away by ascending air currents. "Nimble" small ice floes, moving to the upper part of the cloud, all the time collide with large ones. With each such collision, electrification occurs, in which large pieces of ice are charged negatively, and small ones are positively charged.

Over time, positively charged small pieces of ice are at the top of the cloud, and negatively charged large ones at the bottom. In other words, the top of a thundercloud is positively charged, while the bottom is negatively charged. Thus, the kinetic energy of the ascending air currents is converted into the electrical energy of the separated charges. Everything is ready for a lightning discharge: a breakdown of the air occurs, and a negative charge from the bottom of the thundercloud flows to the ground.

So, in order for a thundercloud to form, ascending currents of warm and moist air are necessary. It is known that the concentration of saturated vapors increases with an increase in temperature and is maximum in summer. The temperature difference, on which ascending air currents depend, is the greater, the higher its temperature at the earth's surface, because. at an altitude of several kilometers, the temperature does not depend on the season. This means that the intensity of the ascending currents is also maximum in summer. Therefore, we have thunderstorms most often in summer, and in the north, where it is cold in summer, thunderstorms are quite rare.

? Why is ice slippery?

Scientists have been trying to figure out why you can slide on ice for the past 150 years. In 1849, the brothers James and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) put forward the hypothesis that the ice below us melts because we press on it. And so we are no longer sliding on ice, but on the formed film of water on its surface. Indeed, if the pressure is increased, the melting point of ice will decrease. However, as experiments have shown, in order to lower the melting point of ice by one degree, it is necessary to increase the pressure to 121 atm (12.2 MPa). Let's try to calculate how much pressure an athlete exerts on the ice when he slides on it on one skate 20 cm long and 3 mm thick. If we assume that the mass of the athlete is 75 kg, then his pressure on the ice will be about 12 atm. Thus, while skating, we can hardly lower the melting point of ice by more than a tenth of a degree Celsius. This means that it is impossible to explain sliding on ice in skates, and even more so in ordinary shoes, based on the assumption of the Thomson brothers, if the temperature outside the window is, for example, -10 °C.

In 1939, when it became clear that the slipperiness of ice could not be explained by lowering the melting temperature, F. Bowden and T. Hughes suggested that the friction force provides the heat necessary to melt the ice under the ridge. However, this theory could not explain why it is so hard to even stand on the ice without moving.

From the beginning of the 1950s scientists began to believe that the ice is still slippery because of the thin film of water that forms on its surface due to some unknown reasons. This stemmed from experiments in which the force required to separate ice balls that touched each other was studied. It turned out that the lower the temperature, the less force is needed for this. This means that there is a liquid film on the surface of the balls, the thickness of which increases with temperature, when it is still much lower than the melting point. By the way, Michael Faraday also thought so back in 1859, without any grounds for it.

Only in the late 1990s. the study of the scattering of protons and X-rays on ice samples, as well as studies using an atomic force microscope, showed that its surface is not an ordered crystalline structure, but rather looks like a liquid. Those who studied the surface of ice with the help of nuclear magnetic resonance came to the same result. It turned out that water molecules in the surface layers of ice are able to rotate with frequencies 100 thousand times greater than the same molecules, but in the depths of the crystal. This means that water molecules on the surface are no longer in the crystal lattice - the forces that force the molecules to be in the nodes of the hexagonal lattice act on them only from below. Therefore, surface molecules do not have to "evade the advice" of the molecules in the lattice, and several surface layers of water molecules come to the same decision at once. As a result, a liquid film forms on the surface of the ice, which serves as a good lubricant when sliding. By the way, thin liquid films are formed on the surface of not only ice, but also some other crystals, such as lead.

Schematic representation of an ice crystal in depth (bottom) and on the surface

The thickness of the liquid film increases with increasing temperature, since more molecules break out of hexagonal lattices. According to some data, the thickness of the water film on the ice surface, which is about 10 nm at –35 °C, increases to 100 nm at –5 °C.

The presence of impurities (molecules other than water) also prevents the surface layers from forming crystal lattices. Therefore, it is possible to increase the thickness of the liquid film by dissolving some impurities in it, for example, ordinary salt. This is what utilities use when they are struggling with icing of roads and sidewalks in winter.

A thunderstorm is an unusually powerful and beautiful natural phenomenon, which for some reason is observed exclusively in the warm season. Is there a thunderstorm in winter? And if not, why not? Before accurately answering this question, you need to try to figure it out - what is a thunderstorm in general, what causes thunder and under what conditions a thunderstorm is impossible in principle.

Thunderstorm nature

In order for a thunderstorm front to form in the atmosphere, three main components are needed: moisture, a pressure drop region, and a powerful source of energy.

The main source of energy for all atmospheric phenomena is one - solar energy. IN winter period, when daylight hours are reduced to a minimum, and the temperature drops, there is much less solar energy than in the warmer season.

The process of thunderstorm formation requires the presence of water in the atmosphere simultaneously in three states: gaseous (in the form of steam), liquid (raindrops or the smallest particles of fog) and crystalline (ice or snowflakes). All three phases can be observed simultaneously only in summer weather conditions, when it is cold enough at altitude for ice and snow to appear, and below, where it is much warmer, water falls in liquid form. In winter, one of the phases - liquid - is absent, because negative temperatures do not allow the snow to melt.

An equally important component is pressure, large drops in which in winter time much less pronounced. Indeed, for the appearance of two areas with different levels of pressure, sufficiently powerful ascending flows of humidified air and the largest possible temperature difference between the upper and lower layers of air are required. In the warm season, the sun warms up well earth's surface and provides these conditions, while in winter the solar heat, as a rule, is not enough, and thunderstorms do not occur.

Exception to the rule

Of course, there are exceptions to any rule. There is such a natural phenomenon as a snow storm. It is extremely rare and occurs only on the banks of large reservoirs that do not freeze in winter and can provide a sufficient amount of moist air. Winter thunderstorms are very short-lived and cannot be compared to the powerful thunderstorms in the summer months.

By the way, in Rus' there has long been a holiday called Gromnitsa. It is celebrated on February 2 and is dedicated to Dodola-Malanitsa - the Slavic goddess of lightning and the wife of the god Perun. By folk omens, this is the only day of the year when it is possible to observe winter thunderstorms.

Unfortunately, active human activity more and more often leads to global climate change. In many regions, especially in regions with a milder climate, this leads, among other things, to an increase in thunderstorm activity. In these places, no one can be surprised by a thunderstorm in December or January.

Author Milichka asked a question in Climate, Weather, Time zones

why in winter there is no thunderstorm and thunder and got the best answer

Answer from Olesya[guru]
Thunderstorms sometimes occur in winter, but this is an extremely rare occurrence. Most likely, the explanation for why thunderstorms are an exclusively summer phenomenon lies in the fact that active thunderstorm formation requires the presence of water in the atmosphere simultaneously in three phases: gaseous (steam), liquid (water droplets in the form of fog, raindrops) and crystalline ( micro ice or snowflakes). All three phases are present only in summer conditions (it is cold at a height - water particles freeze there - here you have ice and snowflakes), and below, where it is warmer - the water is already in the liquid phase. In winter, one of the phases (liquid) falls out, because it is also cold below, and there are no conditions for water to be in a liquid state. .
Thunderstorms require moist air. And in winter, as you know, moisture, water turns into ice, snowflakes and falls to the ground. While in summer, moisture floats in the sky, in winter it is not there. The air is dry. And thunderstorms need moisture. Humidity is what causes electricity discharges.
Where does the electricity in the sky come from? Clouds walking in the sky carry billions of small particles of water and dust, interacting with the natural electromagnetic field of the earth, and are not charged. The earth has its own electromagnetic field. When the charge becomes critically large, a discharge occurs, which is called a thunderstorm. A thunderstorm is an electrical discharge accompanied by a flash of lightning and the sound of thunder. Thunder is the sound that is produced by a flash of lightning.
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Answer from Pavel Patin[newbie]
how they fuck! it's rare, but it does happen. e.g. February 1, 2015.
I can even give you a link
True, only 2 rolls, but shizanula. more like that.

Answer from Tyrannosaurus[guru]
And why in the summer there is no heavy snowfall and cold ....

Answer from Irina[newbie]
no temperature difference

Answer from Pavel Kabanov[guru]
Here is an example; --_Saturday, December 5, active atmospheric front moves from the Sea of ​​Japan to the cold coast of the south of Primorye. It is this fact that explains the thunderstorms and lightning that occurred in Vladivostok in evening time. Thunderstorms are caused by a temperature contrast of 10-13°C between warm and cold air masses. In the next 2 hours, the front will move to the continent and the thunderstorms will stop, it will get colder, the snow will remain.
Winter thunderstorms are quite rare. But in Primorye they have already happened. So, on December 5, 1949, there was a thunderstorm, the largest amount of precipitation per day (28 mm) fell in 1971, and a hurricane wind (40 m/s) was recorded in 1955.

Answer from Komandor[guru]
Happens.

Answer from Olga[guru]
Well, from what? The weather is unpredictable. In the morning you can leave the house in the summer, and return in the winter ... It happens even in June snowing, and in December it rains ... A mystery?!

Before finding out whether there is a thunderstorm in winter, one should determine what this natural phenomenon is in general, what causes it and without which it is impossible in principle.

Causes of a thunderstorm

There are three main ingredients needed to form a thunderstorm front: moisture, pressure drop resulting in the formation of a thundercloud, and powerful energy. The main source of energy is the celestial body of the sun, which releases energy when steam thickens. Due to the fact that in winter there is a lack of sunlight and heat, such energy cannot be generated to a sufficient extent.

The next component is moisture, but due to the entry of icy air, precipitation is observed in the form of snow. When spring arrives, the air temperature becomes higher, and a significant amount of moisture forms in the air, sufficient to form a thunderstorm. In general, the more it is in the air, the greater the power of the electric discharge of lightning.

An equally necessary component is pressure, the drops of which in the cold winter period also occur extremely rarely. For its formation, two opposite air flows are needed - warm and cold. Cold air prevails near the earth's surface in winter, which almost does not warm up, therefore, when meeting with the same cold air in the upper layers, there is no sufficient pressure jump. From all this, the objective possibility of a thunderstorm in winter is practically impossible.

Interesting:

Interesting facts about snow

However, in last years The Earth is not going through the best of its times, due to human activity and other likely sources of impact. The climate is undergoing changes, we often began to observe a protracted autumn with a positive air temperature and there is a real opportunity in the future to observe real thunderstorms and heavy rains in winter.

Snowstorm in Russia

There is such a thing as a snow or snow thunderstorm, but this phenomenon is extremely rare and occurs mainly on the shores of large non-freezing water bodies: seas and lakes. In Russia, snowstorms are most common in Murmansk, about once a year. However, this atmospheric phenomenon, although rare, can be observed on the territory of the European part of Russia. So, for example, they were recorded in Moscow in the first winter month in 2006, twice and once on January 19, 2019.

In the southern territories with a warm, humid climate, thunderstorms occur constantly, regardless of the season. Of course, rarely, but you can still observe this atmospheric phenomenon in winter in Russia. On the European and West Siberian territory of our country, thunderstorm fronts arise as a result of the penetration of cyclones coming from warm seas. At the same time, an increase in air temperature to positive is observed, and when two air streams meet - warm and cold from the north, thunderstorms occur.

Recently, there has been an increase in thunderstorm activity. Most often this phenomenon occurs in the first two months of winter - December and January. At the same time, thunderstorms are very short, they last only a few minutes and mainly occur at air temperatures above 0 degrees, and only 3% is observed at low temperatures - from -1 to -9.

Because in winter there is much less moisture than in summer. In summer, it gathers in the air and there is a thunderstorm. I think in winter on warm days it could be if these warm days lasted for some long time, but then winter would not be winter.

There are thunderstorms in winter, but very rarely. This is due to the fact that the climate of some regions has changed slightly due to global warming. If you think about it, we already hear thunder more often late autumn. Is it true?

Thunderstorms cannot be without water, and in winter, due to negative temperatures, all moisture, even near the surface, is in the form of snow and ice. Of course, ice or hail is also necessary for the occurrence of a thunderstorm, in particular for the accumulation of an electric charge, but this charge appears only when water drops and ice floes collide. This collision is possible only with strong oncoming flows of cold and warm air - warm from the heated surface of the earth, cold - cooled down in the upper atmosphere. Therefore, even in summer, thunderstorms occur after a particularly strong heat wave. However, thunderstorms are also possible in winter and they occur when streams of warm air are carried by a strong wind into an area of ​​​​cold air - then the very collision of water and ice occurs and appears electric charge in the clouds.

Yes, I personally have never seen thunderstorms in winter! But in the cold season, snowfalls are so frequent and wonderful (for many).

Thunderstorms in winter months missing because:

firstly, in cold weather there are no temperature drops in the atmosphere and there are no pressure drops that contribute to the appearance of a thunderstorm;

secondly, all the moisture in winter, due to low temperatures, turns into snow, and for a thunderstorm, it is moisture, rain, that is needed. Apparently for the same reason, when it is cold, there are simply no gloomy thunderclouds, cumulus clouds.

Cause Thunderstorms are pressure differences that are caused by currents of cold and warm air. Since there is no heat in winter, there can be no thunderstorms.

Second reason is that in winter there are no cumulonimbus clouds that are carriers of thunderstorms.

Third reason- this is the lack of solar heat and light, due to which a thunderstorm appears.

In fact, the key factor is the electrical resistance of the medium. After all, lightning is an electrical discharge of gigantic magnitude.

Yes, humidity affects resistance, and the more humidity, the less resistance. This is natural.

But no less important (and often the main, decisive) is the temperature. The lower, the greater the resistance. Accordingly, in winter it is more difficult for lightning to break through the thickness of cold air.

Locally in the upper layers it can be, but rarely to the Earth.

This is if we are talking about normal winters.

and lately we have often experienced not winter, but prolonged autumn. when there is a lot of water and not cold enough. But water is a conductor. Get lightning in a thunderstorm in calendar winter.

It happens in Crimea. For two years in a row in December and in January there is a thunderstorm. From the sky it rains with snow, and sometimes hail. The sight is terrible and at the same time beautiful: everything is covered in black clouds, it is dark, lightning strikes across this black sky and heavy snow is falling. Lightning is usually red in such a thunderstorm.

For the occurrence of thunderstorms, the necessary conditions are powerful ascending air movements, which are formed as a result of the convergence of air flows (it also happens in winter), the heating of the underlying surface (this factor is not present in winter), and the features of orography. Therefore, there are thunderstorms in winter, but very rarely, in the more southern regions of Russia, Ukraine, in the Caucasus, in Moldova. And it is most often associated with the release of active southern cyclones

Yeah, all the patterns will soon come to naught if we play with natural phenomena... Rains in winter were once also an unreal event ....

in summer the sun is hotter and the air is humid, moisture goes into the clouds when it accumulates a lot and a thunderstorm occurs ... in winter, there is less moisture ...



I think we went through it at school. And I personally still remember. But I can always share what I know. In order for a thunderstorm to arise, a combination of such components as pressure drop, energy and, of course, water. In winter, precipitation falls either as snow or as snow and rain. The appearance of water is prevented by the cold air of this time of year. But in spring and summer, the temperature becomes higher and this contributes to the appearance a large number water molecules in the air.

Since the sun is the main source of energy for the appearance of thunderstorms, and in winter there is very little of it, this does not allow thunder to appear in the atmosphere. In addition, at this time of the year it practically does not heat.

The air temperature in the warm season changes much more often. Pressure drops cause currents of cold and warm air, which are direct sources of thunderstorms.

There is also a thunderstorm in winter, but this is a very rare occurrence, since in winter there are usually very strong warm air currents from which this could happen, when a cold cyclone mixes with a hot cyclone, that is, head-to-head, so an outbreak occurs due to - for differential pressure.

• As the climate warms, there are changes in the weather. Winter thunderstorms are already known.

  But the question of the impossibility of thunderstorms in cold weather is directly related to temperature and pressure difference. IN summer time temperature changes more abruptly than in winter, and hence the meeting of cold and warm air gives a change in pressure, which leads to thunderstorms. energy for does not give the sun. In winter, there is little sunlight to generate thermal energy. Still for thunderstorms must be present water molecules. The cold air does not contain enough of them, only warm time contributes to increased production of precipitation.

  Based on the foregoing, the conclusion suggests itself that a thunderstorm requires appropriate conditions and the presence of these components: