This is just a quick post to show how dynamic our Mid-Atlantic to New England snowstorm was this past week.  While areas from Virginia up through Massachusetts saw a high snow-to-liquid ratio snowfall due to very cold temperatures, the Gulf Stream saw thunderstorms ignite as all that upper-level energy and strong temperature gradients (air and ocean) interacted.  There were two waves, the first one produced more discrete cells in the northern OPC offshore zones and appears to have been initiated by a small shortwave embedded in the southwest flow.  The second area of convection was ignited by the strong shortwave that exited the NC coast.  There was even a brief period of low-topped convection near the low center as it went through the central zones.  These storms were then followed by strong winds as the front raced east.

The animation below (click on the image to enlarge) shows the GLD-360 lightning density product overlaid on GOES-13 Infrared imagery during the systems transition from land to ocean.

GLD-360 Lightning Density (30-minute accumulation) overlaid on GOES-13 Infrared imagery.

Thank you for reading!