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Re: 'snowstorm vs. blizzard'

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 23, 2003, 23:42
Quoting taliesin the storyteller <taliesin-conlang@...>:

> * jcowan@reutershealth.com said on 2003-12-23 17:43:58 +0100 > > Andreas Johansson scripsit: > > > 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. > > > > Evidently so. > > > > A "severe blizzard" means that the wind speed exceeds 45 mph (72 > > km/hr, 20 m/s), visibility less than 100 feet (30 m), and temperature > > at or below 10 deg F (-12 deg C). This may be more what you have in > > mind. > > That's what a snowstorm is defined as in these here parts :)
Herearounds, a "storm", in technical usage, implies wind speeds of 20.8-32.6 m/s (may be subdivided into "half storm", "storm" and "severe storm", with divisions at 24.5 and 28.4 m/s). I do not know if "snowstorm" has a technical definition, but I'd expect one to have storm strength winds. Now, I was under the impression a North American blizzard was worse than a mere Scandinavian snowstorm, which indeed turns out to be quite exaggerated.
> Ever been in a snow hurricane?
Not that I know. The worst I ever was in was no worse than you could actually walk against the wind (but still enough to stop school on account of packing a few metres of snow on the road most teachers would have been coming via!). Andreas (from the warm south)