Re: 'snowstorm vs. blizzard'

Quoting Christopher Wright <faceloran@...>:

> John Cowan palsalge
> >As defined by the U.S. National Weather Service, a blizzard requires both
> of:
> >
> >1) winds with more than 32 mph (51 km/hr)
> >
> >2) visibility less than 500 feet (150 m)
>
> ICU, AFAICT, the limited visibility is the integral part. Blizzards
> generally have lots of large flakes coming down quickly.
How is "visibility" defined? If it means you could have a "blizzard" in which
you can see a, say, a car 150 m away and with wind speeds of no more than 15
m/s, my impression of what intensity the word implies is quite exaggerated.

                                                            Andreas

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