“Holy smokes! It’s a blizzard out there!” And most times our meanings are sincere, but our misuse of the word ‘blizzard’ are probably more often than not. Here in Canada, in order for a blizzard to be truly called a blizzard, certain criteria must be met:
Winds must be sustained at 40 km/h or more for at least 4 hours combining with falling or blowing snow to cause visibilities to be reduced to 400 m or less. Hence the 4-4-4 rule. However, there is an exception: areas north of the treeline line in Canada have to have the same conditions but it must last at least six hours to be deemed a blizzard.
Source:
theweathernetwork
Our definition of a blizzard differs from that of our neighbours to the South.
In the U.S., to be a blizzard, a snow storm must have sustained winds or frequent gusts that are greater than or equal to 56 km/h (35 mph) with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 m or 0.25 mile or less and must last for a prolonged period of time—typically three hours or more.
The deadliest blizzard in recorded history?
It was the
1972 Iran Blizzard, which caused approximately 4,000 deaths. It dropped as much as 26 feet (7.9 m) of snow – that’s like a two and half story building worth of snowfall, and completely covered 200 villages. After a snowfall lasting nearly a week, an area the size of Wisconsin was entirely buried in snow.
According to Associated Press reports, some rescue workers who’d been dropped on a snow drift burying a village called Sheklab dug for two days straight, burrowing through 8 feet of snow, only to find 18 frozen bodies and no one—not one single person in a population of 100—still alive.
The second deadliest blizzard on record tore through Afghanistan in 2008, bringing -30 degree temperatures and killing an estimated 926 people.
Source(s):
theweathernetwork |
wikipedia |
weirdfm
