Thunder snow transcript

It's cold but University of Missouri storm chasers are ready to hit the road. They're not chasing tornadoes this time. Today they're chasing thunder snow that may improve winter storm forecasting.

Storm chasers don't stop just because it's winter. MU researchers will release weather balloons during severe winter storms to study the little known phenomenon of thunder snow. Patrick Market, atmospheric science associate professor says, “One of the things that we're still not completely clear on is how the cloud becomes electrified.” Market leads a team of students with the goal of tracking a full blown thunder snow event.

Students say it won't be easy. Stuart Miller, Mexico, Mo. says, “There's not a lot known about it, and the biggest hazard with it is you get blizzard conditions, white-out conditions.”

Storm chasers will release a series of weather balloons in the middle of a winter storm. data from the balloons will be sent to the research team's laptops to be analyzed. Justin Titus, Billings, Mo. says, ”We're going to be able to observe the temperature and humidity Inside the storm as well as wind, and when we can do that we can better forecast the environment that will cause these storms to produce heavy snowfall.”

The weather balloons provide data that allows the students to see inside the storm. Chris Brame says, “If we launched it in a snow storm we could see how the atmosphere is behaving right then and there. Nobody has tried to get this kind of sounding through any great detail through any kind of winter storm.”