Figure 1 – A massive snowstorm churns over the East Coast of the United States on Jan. 23. Scott Kelly / NASA

The recent east coast snow storm brought us another great image from space that I cannot resist. Astronaut Scott Kelly who recently marked 300 days on the International Space Station tweeted: “Rare #thundersnow visible from @Space_Station” along with the awe-inspiring image of Figure 1.

Thundersnow is as you might expect snow accompanied by thunder and lightning. It happens when the atmosphere is especially unstable. That is like a monster storm spanning most of the east coast of the United States.