Published: Less than 20 min ago
The snow chaos moved in with thunder and crash over Stockholm.
The loud bangs woke many in the night.
– It sounds like bombs, one person told Aftonbladet.
– Very disgusting, thought another.
That it would be snowy and difficult in traffic on Monday was probably expected by many after all the precipitation this weekend.
But the fact that you would be woken up by a severe thunderstorm that moved in overnight came as a surprise to most.
Just before 1 a.m., many readers in the Stockholm area contacted Aftonbladet about their experiences of the weather phenomenon.
Sounds like bombs
“There is lightning extremely often and regularly in Hägersten in southern Stockholm. Sounds like bombs coming about five minutes apart,” said one person.
“There is lightning and thunder very strongly in Fagersjö. Lights up the whole house. Tremendous,” states another.
“We woke up at 00.50 to what we thought was an explosion and of course were very scared,” says a person in Tyresö.
Others were more fascinated than scared.
“It was different and exciting to wake up to strong and prolonged thunder and lightning all while huge snowflakes were falling”, says a reader in Nacka.
“Counted at least five flashes of lightning with thunder,” says a person in Saltsjöbaden.
“It thundered so hard that you flew off the sofa last night,” wrote a reader in Skarpnäck in southern Stockholm.
Screamed during the emergency call
Several residents in and around Stockholm saw trees that had fallen over pavements and carriageways in connection with the thunderstorm.
Arash was on his way home from a celebration with his colleagues at the Folkoperan when he noticed a tree lying over parked cars on Bellmansgatan in central Stockholm.
– I called 112 to report that the road was blocked. Just then there was a flash of lightning and then the thunder right after. I screamed, so the operator asked what happened, he says.
The weather phenomenon when a thunderstorm with accompanying snowfall thunders into the winter goes by the English name “thundersnow” (thundersnow) and is quite unusual.
Thunder snow is most common in the USA – but the fact that it happened last night also in Sweden is not entirely surprising to SMHI..
– It occurs, but it is most common in other seasons, such as summer when there is heavy rain in connection with thunder, says Petter Lind, meteorologist at SMHI, to TT.
Air moves vertically
He believes that it is about the process that creates the precipitation.
The strong villages that occur more in the summer with heavy rainfall have now been observed out to sea, but then in the form of heavy snowfall, Petter Lind tells TT.
– It is then convection in the atmosphere that causes the air to move vertically so that it causes the air to rise. Then there can be a strong large vertical extension that causes thunder to form and it also occurs in winter, he says.
– Even northern Gotland and the Baltic Sea have had some discharges, mostly over seas and when they reach over land, it is dampened. But Stockholm is close to the coast.