| Part of the Nature series on Weather |
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Thunderstorm · Tornado |
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Drizzle · Rain · Snow · Graupel |
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Meteorology · Climate |
| Weather Portal |
A blizzard is a severe storm condition characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and heavy snow. Many blizzards are in the canadian region. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. Ground blizzards are a variation on the traditional blizzard, in that ground blizzards require high winds to stir up snow that has already fallen, rather than fresh snowfall. Regardless of the variety of blizzard, they can bring near-whiteout conditions, which restrict visibility to near zero. Blizzards have a negative impact on local economies and for days at a time can paralyze regions where snowfall is unusual or rare.
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In the United States, the National Weather Service defines a blizzard as sustained winds or frequent gusts reaching or exceeding 35 mph (56 km/h) which lead to blowing snow and cause visibilities of ¼ mile (or 400 m) or less, lasting for at least 3 hours. Temperature is not taken into consideration when issuing a blizzard warning, but the nature of these storms is such that cold air is often present when the other criteria are met.[1] Temperatures are generally below 32 °F (0 °C).
According to Environment Canada, a winter storm must have winds of 40 km/h (25 mph) or more, have snow or blowing snow, visibility less than 500 feet (150 m), a wind chill of less than −25 °C (−15 °F), and all of these conditions must last for 3 hours or more before the storm can be properly called a blizzard.
Many European countries, such as the UK, have a lower threshold: the Met Office defines a blizzard as "moderate or heavy snow" combined with a mean wind speed of 30 mph (48 km/h) and visibility below 650 feet (200 m).
Meteorologists refer to blizzard-like conditions with no snow falling as a ground blizzard, because all the snow is already present at the surface of the earth and is simply being blown by high winds. Ground blizzards require large expanses of open and relatively flat land with a sufficient amount of accumulated and loosely packed, powdery snow to be blown around.
The word "blizzard" was first used in Estherville, Iowa to describe winter storms that snowbound people for extended periods of time.[2]
Although the word is commonly used to describe heavy snow and high winds, this is not a true "whiteout." Real "whiteouts" occur mostly in the Arctic and Antarctic during the spring, when snow is still deep on the ground and there is lots of daylight and surprisingly calm weather and excellent visibility. Whiteouts occur when rays of sunlight are bounced in all directions between bright white clouds, especially a thin layer of overcast, and bright snow or ice. Clean snow and ice reflects nearly 85% of incoming light. Falling snowflakes, suspended fog droplets or ice particles in the air would make conditions even worse. In a true whiteout, neither shadows, nearby objects, landmarks, nor clouds are discernible. All sense of direction, depth perception and even balance may be lost. Land and sky seem to blend, and the horizon disappears into a white nothingness. Whiteouts trick pilots and travelers into believing down is up and far is near.
Like all severe weather events such as hurricanes, droughts and floods, blizzards can be disruptive to local economies and likely have a significant impact on society. This is especially the case when blizzards hit in localities in generally warmer climates where snowfall is infrequent. In cities that do not have snow removal equipment, traffic and commerce can be brought to a standstill for days and in some cases weeks. The economic impacts include lost productivity because people cannot get to work or parents must stay home with children due to school closings, airport closures, product delivery delays and the cost of snow removal.[3]
BLIZZARD (origin probably onomatopoeic, cf. "blast," "bluster"), a furious wind driving fine particles of choking, blinding snow whirling in icy clouds. The conditions to which the name was originally given occur with the northerly winds in rear of the cyclones crossing the eastern states of America during winter.
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Categories: BLE-BO | The weather
| Blizzard Entertainment | |
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| Founded | 1991 |
| Located | Irvine, California |
| Website | http://blizzard.com/ |
Blizzard Entertainment is a division of Vivendi Games (originally Havas Interactive). Founded in 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse in Irvine, California by Allen Adham, current president Michael Morhaime, and current senior vice president Frank Pearce. Blizzard has developed games for DOS, Macintosh, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Windows NT and Mac OS platforms.
Blizzard North was the Northern-California division of Blizzard Entertainment, known for the Diablo series. The studio was originally based in Redwood City, and then moved a short distance away to San Mateo, with Blizzard proper being based in Irvine (in southern California).
Blizzard North was originally an independent company. It was established in 1993 under the name Condor, founded by Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik. The company was purchased and renamed by Blizzard about six months before the release of their hit PC game, Diablo, in 1996. Diablo proved to be incredibly successful, and the still-more successful sequel Diablo II was released in 2000. An expansion pack followed the year after.
By June of 2003 two new games were in production. However on June 30, 2003, several key employees left Blizzard North to form the new companies Flagship Studios (8 moved there) and Castaway Entertainment (9 moved there). The Blizzard North exodus continued on with around 30 employees leaving the company in total.
The resignations were partly due to a conflict with Blizzard Entertainment's owner, Vivendi, and partly due to employees wishing to start something new. Back at Blizzard North, however, they would have a common effect; of the two unannounced games that were in production at the time, one was now forced to be canceled. Blizzard Entertainment has since said the canceled game was a "Blizzard North kind of game".
On August 1, 2005, Blizzard Entertainment announced the closure of Blizzard North, saying that remaining employees were moving to its head offices to resume work on an unannounced project. A few employees from the Diablo team, including Eric Sexton, Michio Okamura and Steven Woo, organized to launch a new company, Hyboreal Games, which later became U.I. Pacific and is working on a new online game.[1]
A few months after the closure of Blizzard North, Bill Roper, Erich Schaefer and his brother Max Schaefer co-founded Flagship Studios which now is developing Mythos and Hellgate: London.
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| Blizzard Entertainment | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Irvine, CA, U.S., Velizy, Yvelines, France |
| Products | The Warcraft series
The StarCraft series The Diablo series |
| Parent Company | N/A |
| Website | http://www.blizzard.com |
Blizzard is a Popular gaming company based out of Irvine, California. Creators of the popular Warcraft series, Diablo Series and StarCraft Series and of the popular Battle.net online gaming service. They started as Silicon & Synapse in 1991, and released a couple of titles for the SNES and Genesis. The game that would make them a major developer did not come until 1994, where after changing their name to Blizzard Entertainment, they released an RTS game called Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. The Warcraft series is now one of the most successful franchises in the industry.
Their games today are primarily for the PC, with a new division entitled Blizzard Console focusing on games for home consoles.
A blizzard is a large winter storm. It brings low temperatures, strong winds, and a lot of blowing snow. Blizzards start when a high pressure system touches as low pressure system. The word blizzard is sometimes used incorrectly by news media to talk about big winter storms, even if the storm is not a blizzard.
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Some areas are more likely to be hit by blizzards than others, but a blizzard can occur in any place where snow falls. In North America, blizzards happen often in the northern-east states, and in the provinces of Canada. In this region, blizzards can happen more than twice each winter. They also occur often in the mountain ranges of western North America. Because these regions have low populations, blizzards sometimes are not reported.
A very dangerous type of blizzard is a whiteout. In a whiteout, downdrafts and snowfall are so think that people cannot tell the ground and sky apart. People caught in a whiteout lose their sense of direction very fast. This is a large danger to pilots when they are flying airplanes, because they cannot tell how close they are to the ground, and may crash.
under snow.]]The Great Blizzard of 1888 was very damaging for the Northeastern United States. In that blizzard, 400 people died, 200 ships sunk, and snowdrifts were 10 or 15 feet high. In the Great Plains, states were hit by the Schoolhouse Blizzard that trapped children in schools and killed 235 people.
In 1880–1881 there was a winter that people in the Dakotas called the "Hard Winter". The author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her book The Long Winter about that winter's story. It talks about one blizzard after another, and how it changed Laura's family and everybody around her. The book is almost all true. Her story of two men from the town of DeSmet, South Dakota, going after some wheat stored some miles south of DeSmet in February 1881 is true, and Ingalls later married one of the men, Almanzo Wilder). If the two men had not found and brought back the wheat, the people would have starved. The snow and ice thawed in April, and the railroads could start again. The train picture above was photographed on March 29, 1881, not far from DeSmet.
34 people died during a 3-day spring blizzard on March 1920 in North Dakota. One of the people who died was Hazel Miner, a teenage girl who died of freezing to death when she got lost on her way home from her one-room-school.
The Armistice Day Blizzard in 1940 surprised many people with how fast the temperature dropped. It was Template:Convert/°F in the morning, but by noon, it was snowing. Some of the people froze to death in the snow. 154 people died in the Armistice Day Blizzard.
105 years after the Great Blizzard of 1888, a giant blizzard, named the Storm of the Century, hit the U.S in 1993. It dropped snow on 26 states and reached as far north as Canada and as far south as Mexico. In many southern U.S. areas, such as parts of Alabama, more snow fell in this storm than ever fell in an entire winter. Highways and airports closed across the U.S. The blizzard also made 15 tornadoes in Florida. When the storm was over, 270 people died and 48 were reported missing.
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   | Dr Richard Wild - Dr Richard Wild - Heavy Snow, Blizzards, Snowstorms and Snowfall Site |
| | Digital Snow Museum - The Digital Snow Museum |
| | Environment Canada's definition of Blizzard - Blizzards - Environment Canada |
| | Severe Winter Weather Events Excerpts - Significant Winter Weather Events - Environment Canada |
| | "Blizzard" Again - JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie |
| | link title - Example Web Page |
| | Natural Disasters – Blizzards - Natural Disasters - Blizzards and Snowstorms |
| | NOAA Photo Library - NOAA Photo Library - HOME |
| | ClassicBuffalo.com Weather - Classic Buffalo Weather, snow, blizzard, forecast |
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