Description given on Youtube:
What’s a Blizzard? You know – besides a delicious dairy treat created by a certain ice cream queen.
This term gets tossed around at least once every winter for the big snowstorm of the season, and most of the time – it’s WRONG!
I’m Storm Shield Meteorologist Jason Meyers, and blizzards have a very specific, difficult set of criteria to meet before they can be categorized as this type of winter storm – and it has more to do with wind and visibility than snow.
According to the National Weather Service, blizzards are winter storms with frequent winds of 35 miles an hour or higher with falling or blowing snow that reduces visibility to a quarter mile or less. That means it doesn’t even have to be snowing for a blizzard to occur. BUT, all these conditions are expected to last for a minimum of three hours!
That’s a long time for any storm in one spot, and that last little time requirement is what usually disqualifies most winter storms from being classified as a blizzard.
It’s more common for a snowstorm to have blizzard conditions for a short while, but lasting the entire three hours is much more rare.
But when the United States does see a blizzard, they’re most common in the Northern Plains, Midwest, and in the Northeast.
If you’re unfortunate enough to witness a blizzard, stay inside and stay warm. If you’re stuck in your car, stay inside, running about 10 minutes every hour for heat, and make sure the exhaust is clear of snow to avoid gas poisoning.
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