Thunder And Lightning

2014-05-02 18:47:42.000 – Michael Kyle,  Weather Observer

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At around 2:05PM this afternoon, with a quick flash and loud bang the summit of Mount Washington experienced its first thunderstorm of 2014. The thunderstorm was short lived, only lasting 24 minutes, but still caused the power to flash and accounted for multiple claps of thunder. So far this year there have been several days, with thunderstorm activity observed across New England. However as those storms approached the White Mountains they weakened or changed course. This made today’s thunderstorm even more surprising, because the forecast only called for a slight chance of thunderstorms and the radar showed very modest scattered showers across New Hampshire.

While the first thunderstorm of this season did occur about 20 days earlier than last year, it was nowhere near the earliest thunderstorm observed here at the Mount Washington. Since 1935 there have been 10 days that thunderstorm where observed in the month of January. Never the less, today’s thunderstorm was a pleasant surprise, and hopefully it will be one of many that will be seen in this upcoming summer.

Michael Kyle,  Weather Observer