Re: 'snowstorm vs. blizzard'

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003, taliesin the storyteller wrote:

> * 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 :) (Though
> might be the harsh end of the scale) Ever been in a snow hurricane?
> (Seeing a car be lifted was.. well.. We shouldn't have tried going to
> the movies that night ;) ) If it's a storm, whatever is falling doesn't
> "fall" per se as that for me at least means dropping along a line normal
> to the ground. If there's enough wind, things doesn't as much fall as
> move almost horizontally.
Bah, if it's a storm you get saturated a few minutes after going outside
and there's thunder and lightning. Though there also might be tree-
falling-over-strong winds and 45 degree rain, but this is not a necessity.
Alternatively in times of dust, it might be hot dry northerlies (inland:
desert) carrying with them lots of dust, though I haven't experienced any
bad ones of these.

> Yesterday, it was -5C to -10C, 10 to 15 meter visibility, snow hitting
> the ground at about 45-50 degree angle, but the flakes was of such a
> type that it didn't have the usual sander-effect on exposed skin. (The
> low visibility was also due to the type of snow, it wasn't really a
> storm. Dry, small, very light flakes, so easily pushed even by a little
> wind. Wet, big flakes are worse.) Today it's been a pleasant -7 to -3 C
> though no sun.
-3 is *pleasant*? That's freezing---literally! Last few days its been
particularly present with minimums of 18 C or below (so it's possible to
sleep at night) and maximums in the low to mid twenties (though today it's
forcast to reach a high of 31 (feels to cold for it but), and the very
suitable 30 on Christmas.

> t., who lives by the mild and pleasant coast, where the winter is wet
> and icy more than white and cold. I hope the snow stays the week.
--
Tristan, from the cold, as my NSW and Qld* neighbors to the north would
have it, south, where the winter is six months ago. (Of course, they're
wrong; we just have the good sense to interweave summer and winter for a
few weeks in December.)

* Funny. They say its cold here, yet call us Mexicans ('south of the
  border'). Silly Bananabenders.

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