Why don't snowstorms have lightning and thunder?

For lightning and thunder to be created, there needs to be warm updraft, but for a snow storm, the warm updrafts are way too weak. There are lightning like flashes in more intense snow storm, but those aren’t lightning, they are different. read more

I personally witnessed it just last November, when my ladyfriend and I were awakened several times by crashing thunder while several inches of snow was falling. The conditions generally needed for lightning-producing storms are low-level humidity, low-level air instability, and strong dynamic updrafts of air. read more

Lake-effect snowstorms have narrow clouds shaped more like ordinary thunderstorms, and actually sometimes develop thunder and lightning. Most thundersnow events develop when "ordinary" flat, layered snow clouds develop upward bumps or "turrets", as illustrated in the second diagram. read more