Residents of the southern Plains witnessed a rare wintry phenomenon Wednesday morning known as “thunder sleet,” spawned by the cross-country storm rumbling through the region. Like thundersnow, thunder sleet occurs when thunder or lightning is observed while wintry precipitation is falling — in this case, with sleet, also known as ice pellets.

Thundersnow itself is rare in the sense that it does not occur with every snowstorm, AccuWeather Meteorologist Courtney Travis explained. The same can be said about thunder sleet and thunder with freezing rain with the phenomenon not occurring every time that the wintry precipitation falls.

“Whether they result in thundersnow, thunder sleet or thunder with freezing rain, winter storms that spawn the rare events all have some similar components,” Travis said. “The bottom portion of the storm is winterlike, while the middle and upper portions of the storm are more convective, which is more typical of a spring or summer storm. In these situations, there is also an increased risk of heavier freezing rain or sleet accumulations.”

Lightning strikes are shown along with snow (blue) and mixed sleet and snow (purple) on the AccuWeather radar at 9 a.m. CT on Feb. 23, 2022.

That proved true on Wednesday with areas in northern Texas, southeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas recording 1.5 to 2 inches of sleet through 1 p.m. CST, including Paris, Arkansas; McAlester, Oklahoma; and Quanah, Texas.

In Wichita Falls, Texas, flashes of lightning illuminated the sky Wednesday morning. The airport began reporting thunder sleet and thunder with freezing rain around 4:30 a.m. CST, with the reports still coming in by the afternoon hours.

Reports of thunder sleet, thunder with freezing rain and thundersnow continued throughout the morning across Texas and Oklahoma. Portions of each state were under a winter storm warning.

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While the combination of sleet or freezing rain with lightning and thunder is rare, Wednesday morning’s outbreak of thunder with sleet, freezing rain and snow was unusually widespread with more than 1,500 strikes connecting with the ground through 2 p.m. CST, AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell said, citing data from Vaisala, a lightning research firm based in Finland.

“Temperature readings were also unusually low to be recorded with lightning,” Ferrell said. “Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, reported heavy thundersnow and sleet with winds gusting to 33 mph at 7:11 a.m. CST, while it was 14 degrees Fahrenheit with an AccuWeather RealFeel® of 16 below zero. That’s a miserable morning!”

This week’s storm arrived on the heels of a dramatic warmup across the region, with many places such as the Dallas area reporting temperatures as high as 85 F on Monday. On Tuesday, temperatures across the state ranged from 25 degrees in Perryton, Texas, to 100 at Zapata.

Dallas still had temperatures in the 70s on Tuesday morning, but those readings quickly dropped into the 30s before noon Tuesday, according to Travis. Temperatures were near 30 degrees on Wednesday morning when thunder sleet and thunder with freezing rain were reported.