--- title: How Do Cold Thunderstorms Happen? | WeatherBug | WeatherBug description: There are two ways to get thunderstorms, even when it's cold! canonical: https://www.weatherbug.com/news/How-Do-Cold-Thunderstorms-Happen og:title: How Do Cold Thunderstorms Happen? | WeatherBug | WeatherBug og:description: There are two ways to get thunderstorms, even when it's cold! og:url: https://www.weatherbug.com/news/How-Do-Cold-Thunderstorms-Happen og:site_name: WeatherBug og:locale: en_US og:image: https://cms-assets-con.cdn.weatherbug.net/assets/contentitems/c1/c15085c8-aeba-4f42-883e-a632166d274a/52e0ce98-d40a-4283-82d1-d0fe816ebf4b/252f1616-98e3-4f6e-876e-33b919630df5.jpg og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 600 og:image:alt: Overnight thunderstorms roll through the Chicago area, March 20, 2017. og:type: article article:published_time: 2025-03-07T16:39:40Z article:modified_time: 2025-03-07T16:39:40Z article:author: By WeatherBug Meteorologist, Mark Ellinwood article:tag: lightning article:tag: map article:tag: thunderstorm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Do Cold Thunderstorms Happen? | WeatherBug twitter:description: There are two ways to get thunderstorms, even when it's cold! twitter:image: https://cms-assets-con.cdn.weatherbug.net/assets/contentitems/c1/c15085c8-aeba-4f42-883e-a632166d274a/52e0ce98-d40a-4283-82d1-d0fe816ebf4b/252f1616-98e3-4f6e-876e-33b919630df5.jpg --- [](/) [Back to forecast](/) # How Do Cold Thunderstorms Happen? > Sponsored content. 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The WeatherBug app is free on the App Store and Google Play. ### Sources * The Drop newsletter sign-up: [Sign up for The Drop](/c/weatherbug-drop-2026q4/signup?i=5a0d5948-738a-4d1f-a9a6-944fb6db0a3c&cr=weatherbug-drop-2026q4-v1) * WeatherBug llms.txt: https://www.weatherbug.com/llms.txt * WeatherBug news: https://www.weatherbug.com/news * WeatherBug videos: https://www.weatherbug.com/weather-videos * WeatherBug iOS app: [App Store](/c/weatherbug-drop-2026q4/ios?i=5a0d5948-738a-4d1f-a9a6-944fb6db0a3c&cr=weatherbug-drop-2026q4-v1) * WeatherBug Android app: [Google Play](/c/weatherbug-drop-2026q4/android?i=5a0d5948-738a-4d1f-a9a6-944fb6db0a3c&cr=weatherbug-drop-2026q4-v1) ### FAQ structured data (JSON-LD, optional) March 7, 2025 at 11:39 AM EST By WeatherBug Meteorologist, Mark Ellinwood  While thunderstorms are generally related to warm weather and summertime, there are also instances where it can be in the 30s and 40s while lightning crackles overhead. How do thunderstorms form when it's that cold? The most common "cold" thunderstorms are known as **elevated** thunderstorms. These storms can occur when it is cold at the surface, but there is a warm layer higher up in the atmosphere that provides the energy to the storms. Elevated thunderstorms occur a lot on the north side of a warm front, where warm air is surging in above our heads, but the warm air at the surface hasn't quite made it into the area yet. Ever wonder why these elevated storms seem to have long, drawn-out thunder compared to thunderstorms that occur when it's warm at the surface? With cold air at the surface and warm air above it, the warm air will act as a kind of ceiling, or insulator, to things like sound waves. The sound waves from thunder will hit the bottom of the warm air layer and will bounce back to the ground, which causes the sound of thunder to last much longer. Aside from elevated thunderstorms, there can also be "cold thunderstorms" when it's just _very, very cold_ above the surface. Thunderstorms require unstable air to form, and there is a critical point where the rate of cooling as you go up through the atmosphere is great enough to create an unstable atmosphere. This kind of situation is most common in early winter over large bodies of water, such as the Great Lakes. When the lakes are not frozen and very cold air moves in from Canada, there is enough of a difference between the water temperature and the very cold air above it to create an unstable atmosphere. Whether it's raining or snowing, these are the two ways to get lightning and thunder when it's cold outside. We use technologies, such as cookies, to analyze your use (i.e., pages visited), to customize content, for our internal analytics purposes and for security and other purposes. By continuing to use this website, you agree to this usage. 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[Ad Choices](/legal/privacy#digitaladvertisingandyourchoices) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.weatherbug.com/news/How-Do-Cold-Thunderstorms-Happen"},"headline":"How Do Cold Thunderstorms Happen?","description":"There are two ways to get thunderstorms, even when it's cold!","image":["https://cms-assets-con.cdn.weatherbug.net/assets/contentitems/c1/c15085c8-aeba-4f42-883e-a632166d274a/52e0ce98-d40a-4283-82d1-d0fe816ebf4b/252f1616-98e3-4f6e-876e-33b919630df5.jpg"],"datePublished":"2025-03-07T16:39:40Z","dateModified":"2025-03-07T16:39:40Z","dateCreated":"2025-03-07T16:39:40Z","articleSection":"Weather News","keywords":"lightning,map,thunderstorm","articleBody":"While thunderstorms are generally related to warm weather and summertime, there are also instances where it can be in the 30s and 40s while lightning crackles overhead. How do thunderstorms form when it's that cold?
\r\n
\r\nThe most common \"cold\" thunderstorms are known as elevated thunderstorms. These storms can occur when it is cold at the surface, but there is a warm layer higher up in the atmosphere that provides the energy to the storms.
\r\n
\r\nElevated thunderstorms occur a lot on the north side of a warm front, where warm air is surging in above our heads, but the warm air at the surface hasn't quite made it into the area yet.
\r\n
\r\nEver wonder why these elevated storms seem to have long, drawn-out thunder compared to thunderstorms that occur when it's warm at the surface? With cold air at the surface and warm air above it, the warm air will act as a kind of ceiling, or insulator, to things like sound waves. The sound waves from thunder will hit the bottom of the warm air layer and will bounce back to the ground, which causes the sound of thunder to last much longer.
\r\n
\r\nAside from elevated thunderstorms, there can also be \"cold thunderstorms\" when it's just very, very cold above the surface. Thunderstorms require unstable air to form, and there is a critical point where the rate of cooling as you go up through the atmosphere is great enough to create an unstable atmosphere.
\r\n
\r\nThis kind of situation is most common in early winter over large bodies of water, such as the Great Lakes. When the lakes are not frozen and very cold air moves in from Canada, there is enough of a difference between the water temperature and the very cold air above it to create an unstable atmosphere.
\r\n
\r\nWhether it's raining or snowing, these are the two ways to get lightning and thunder when it's cold outside.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"By WeatherBug Meteorologist, Mark Ellinwood","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"WeatherBug","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com/images/sharing/f1ff28ba-6f06-4745-a782-011a20397e16.png"}}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebSite","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.weatherbug.com/news/How-Do-Cold-Thunderstorms-Happen","relatedLink":"https://www.weatherbug.com/news/How-Do-Cold-Thunderstorms-Happen"},"name":"WeatherBug","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com/news/How-Do-Cold-Thunderstorms-Happen","headline":"How Do Cold Thunderstorms Happen?","description":"There are two ways to get thunderstorms, even when it's cold!","dateModified":"2025-03-07T16:39:40Z","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"WeatherBug","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/WeatherBug","https://instagram.com/WeatherBug","https://www.linkedin.com/company/weatherbug","https://www.pinterest.com/weatherbug","https://twitter.com/WeatherBug","https://www.youtube.com/user/WeatherBugVideo"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com/images/logos/weatherbug_logo_620x447.png"}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"WeatherBug","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/WeatherBug","https://instagram.com/WeatherBug","https://www.linkedin.com/company/weatherbug","https://www.pinterest.com/weatherbug","https://twitter.com/WeatherBug","https://www.youtube.com/user/WeatherBugVideo"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com/images/logos/weatherbug_logo_620x447.png"}}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"WeatherBug","logo":"https://www.weatherbug.com/images/logos/weatherbug_logo_620x447.png","url":"https://www.weatherbug.com","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/WeatherBug","https://instagram.com/WeatherBug","https://www.linkedin.com/company/weatherbug","https://www.pinterest.com/weatherbug","https://twitter.com/WeatherBug","https://www.youtube.com/user/WeatherBugVideo"]} ```