Introducing.... Thundersnow!

 

NEITHER FLEMING NOR ASIMOV

Thundersnow.  It sounds like something from a fantasy thriller or a sci fi novel, but turns out to be a real thing.  I know because we had it last night.  

It's not a phenomenon that many people outside of the meteorological world were aware of, so it was a rare enough event that Edinburgh made the headlines on the BBC Radio 4 news bulletin this morning.  And Police Scotland found themselves faced with a couple of hundred people wanting to know about the 'explosions'...

I can understand the confusion.  The first lightning flash must have lit up our bedroom enough to half-waken me, the noise that immediately followed was more than loud enough to suggest something unnatural taking place.  Barbara, being on the same side as the open window, probably woke quicker than I did, and had no doubt it was just thunder and lightning, albeit of an unusual volume.  For me, a second behind in fully coming to, the image of a bomb or a gas explosion formed in my mind briefly.  

It was bitterly cold so she got up to close the window, just as the second one arrived.  Big flash, brightly monochromed walls, a fraction of a second pause, and BANG.  No doubt in my mind this time that it was 'just' something I'd seen many times before, just a lot closer and a lot grander.  But I can see How anyone who didn't fully waken in that short time period would have thought the worst.  

So we went back to sleep, found we (well, our city) was in the news when we woke up, and suffered a major let down.  Where's all that nice white stuff to make 'our' graveyard look pretty?  Instead there's rain and wind and a gloom inducing greyness that forces the lights to be on at midday.  Thundersnow should have stayed in the fictional realm, it's too disappointing in real life.  

So maybe it's a fitting event for 2020.  My favourite reaction came from a comedian friend (the wonderful Elaine Miller)who said she and her husband lay there debating whether to gather up the kids and flee Thor's wrath, or sacrifice one of them to appease him.  I mean, if the apocalypse arrived before New year, would any of us really be surprised?

Here's a link to the reaction from that well known source of calm and measured reflection, Edinburgh Live 😉 , but if you search for 'edinburgh thundersnow' there are plenty of more intelligent explanations out there...