By Ahmad Abdullah

What Is A Blizzard? A blizzard is a powerful snowstorm that has strong winds and

low temperatures.

The difference between snowstorms and blizzards are the strength of their winds.

To be identified as a blizzard, snowstorms must have more than 56/km of wind or more and visibility must be less than 400 meters.

Blizzards usually last up to around 3hours or more.

There are many types of blizzards depending on their strengths such as severe or ground blizzards.

What Is A Severe Blizzard? A severe blizzard is one of the worst types of blizzards there

is.

Severe blizzards have winds up to 72/kmh and visibility close to zero.

The temperatures even drop to a staggering -12 or lower.

Hyperthermia and starvation usually occur to people that are stranded in vehicles or out in the open without any warm clothing.

In many cases countries that are effected by severe blizzards, suffer from starvation because they depend on food that are grown on farms and because of the blizzards crops are destroyed.

What Is A Ground Blizzard? Ground blizzards is where loose snow or ice on the grown is

lifted and carried away by strong winds.

The difference between ground blizzards and normal blizzards is that in ground blizzards no precipitation is present at the time.

In some places ground blizzards is known to have reduced visibility to less than 1km and drop the temperature to around 0 degrees Celsius.

The speed of winds in ground blizzards are usually 40km/h more. Ground blizzards usually last to around 4hours or more.

One of the worst know ground blizzard is the great lakes blizzard of 1977. At least 29 deaths were recorded after the blizzard stopped.

What Are The Different Forms of Ground Blizzards?

There are three different forms of ground blizzards and they are:

1.Horizontal advection conditions: The wind blows across the surface of the Earth and produces no large scale upward motion.

2.Vertical advection conditions: The wind displays large scale upwards motion lifting the snow into the atmosphere and creating waves of snow up to 500 meters high.

3.Thermal mechanical mixing conditions: Convection forms in the atmosphere and the blizzard are created in waves of snow. These conditions are so dangerous it could bury a house. It is very large and can even be seen from space.

Strong Known Blizzards Groundhog day blizzard of 2011

2010 North American blizzard

Great blizzard of 1993

Great blizzard of 1978

Chicago blizzard of 1979

Great blizzard of 1888

Great Lakes storm of 1913

Blizzard of 1999

What Is The Worst Blizzard In The World?

One of the worst blizzards in the history is the 1972 Iran blizzard.

An approximately 4000 people lost their lives and more than 4 villages were destroyed.

The blizzard lasted from February the third until February the ninth 1972. In that time more than 3 meters of snow was dumped on the northwestern part of Iran. In the south more than 8 meters of snow was dropped.

Villagers were buried and many people lost their homes.

Many villages was completely buried and many without anyone getting out.

How To Prepare For A Blizzard

Ways to prepare for a blizzard are:

1. Stock up on food and medicine you don’t know when the blizzards will stop so be prepared.

2. Get warm clothes so if you get wet you don’t freeze.

3. Get newspapers to see when the blizzard will start or end.

4. Get warm blankets to keep warm in .

5. Never get in a car and try to drive in a blizzard you will mostly get stuck on a road or get in a car accident because of the low visibility.

6. Keep flashlight so if the electricity runs out you are prepared.

7. Always have a fire on so you don’t get cold.

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