Snowstorm

This article treats the term snowstorm as a weather event. Further meanings are listed under The Snowstorm .

	Weather symbol : snow storm , thunderstorm possible
	Weather condition sign 37: Heavy snow sweeping (below eye level)
	Weather condition sign 39: Heavy snow sweeping (above eye level)

A snowstorm is a storm with heavy snowfall . Snow storms are typically winter storms, strong winds driven by low pressure areas with simultaneous penetration of polar cold air . They are also the norm in the high mountains , where they can also occur in summer.

Snow storms are characteristic of certain parts of the world and have special names there:

• Blizzard - North America , Antarctica, and Lapland
• Purga - Central Asia
• Yalca - Andes in northern Peru
• Winter Buran - Kazakhstan and Western Siberia

Radar image North America, February 24, 2007: Blizzard - controlled by a cyclone over the Midwest, drives humid subtropical air from the southwest against a cold air mass over the northeast, violent snowstorms on the front from the Great American Lake District to the Atlantic Ocean near New York and the Appalachian Mountains

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  Snow break after a snow storm in the Steinwald , 1927/1928

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  Press snow on buildings in the high mountains

The most striking side effects of a snowstorm are not only slippery roads but also impaired visibility and impairment of road, rail and air traffic. The amounts of snow can sometimes no longer be cleared with snow plows or not cleared quickly enough so that snow blowers have to be used. Heavy snow loads can destroy trees, but also power poles and telephone lines.

A snow storm that caused around 4,000–6,000 deaths raged from February 3 to 9, 1972 in Iran. The masses of snow buried some villages under them.

See also

• Flying snow
• Snow
• Snow pebbles
• Blowing snow
• Snowdrift
• Drift snow
• Undercooled rain (freezing rain, as a storm event English ice storm )

Web links

Wiktionary: Snowstorm  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

 Wikinews: Snowstorm  - In The News

Commons : Blizzards and Other Snowstorms  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see Winter storms of 2006-07 , engl. Wikipedia
2. ^ Colin A. Whiteman: Cold Region Hazards and Risks . Wiley, 2011, ISBN 978-0-470-97318-9 , pp. 282 (English, 384 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ^ New York Times, February 11, 1972: MISSING PUT AT 6,000 IN IRANIAN BLIZZARD. Retrieved February 2, 2012 .