Blizzards Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Blizzards are the most severe winter storm, with blowing snow, high winds, and low temperatures. Different countries have different classification systems for blizzards. The U.S. National Weather Service categorizes a blizzard as a winter storm with sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 miles per hour or greater, and enough falling or blowing snow to frequently reduce visibility to less than a quarter of a mile. Temperatures are 20 degrees F or lower. These conditions prevail for at least three hours. A “severe” blizzard has winds of 45 miles per hour or greater and temperatures at 10 degrees F or below.

Blizzards are caused by extra-tropical storms that originate outside the tropics and dominate the weather in the mid-latitudes of the world from autumn to spring. A mid-latitude cyclone, an area of low atmospheric pressure surrounded by winds that blow counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, is at the center of these storms. Cyclones are largescale rotating weather systems that pull cold air toward the equator from the poles and carry warmer, humid air in the direction of the polar regions. The clash between these warm and cold air masses produces precipitation along a wide front. In winter, this can generate freezing rain, heavy snowfall, and blizzards. The normal lifetime of a winter cyclone is about three to five days, and generally tends to move across continents and oceans from west to east.

A significant proportion of the world’s population live in the mid-latitude regions, which can expect blizzards in winter along with the severe disruption and economic loss they may cause. A wide range of countries in the Northern Hemisphere may experience blizzards, from Canada to northern regions of Europe and Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, recent blizzards have occurred in the Chilean Andes, southern Peru, and Patagonia in Argentina. Both Arctic and Antarctic regions experience intensely cold blizzards.

In the United States, about 60 million people live in areas with a high risk of snowstorms. From 1960 to 2000, there were 438 blizzards in the United States, or an average of just over ten blizzards a year. On average, a blizzard event affected an area of over 150,000 square kilometers and over 2.4 million people. The highest incidence of blizzards occurred in the blizzard zone of North Dakota, South Dakota, and western Minnesota.

Blizzards create several risks. Blowing and drifting snow can create whiteouts, in which it is impossible to distinguish ground from air, making aviation and land transportation extremely hazardous. Cold temperatures combined with strong winds also create severe wind chills, which can result in frostbite or hypothermia. Power outages may occur, and livestock may die due to heavy snow and high winds. The deadliest blizzard in the world in the 20th century occurred in Iran in February 1972, when a week-long storm caused approximately 4,000 fatalities.

Some observers have predicted that the greater moisture in the atmosphere caused by global warming will intensify the number and strength of blizzards. However, the polar air masses, which are the second ingredient in making a blizzard, are not likely to become colder due to global warming. A recent study shows that blizzards are a less common occurrence on the Canadian prairies during the past 45 years. This may be an early indicator of a reduction in the number of Northern Hemisphere midlatitude cyclones due to global warming.

Bibliography:

Michael Allaby, Blizzards (Facts On File, 2004);
Jeffrey Rosenfeld, Eye of the Storm: Inside the World’s Deadliest Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Blizzards (Plenum Press, 1999);
M. Schwartz, T. W. Schmidlin, “Climatology of Blizzards in the Conterminous United States, 1959-2000,” Journal of Climate (v.15, 2002).