Snow Storms Facts

If you are used to the northern climate in USA, you surely know what snow storms are. It is hard missing a snowstorm in those parts as most of your winter passes indoors! The view out of the window starts resembling the Antarctic as everything is colored white by frequent snow storms. This article tries to explain how do snow storms form and packs in some interesting snow storms facts which you must know.

How are Snow Storms Formed?
Snow storms are a type of winter storm in which the main form of precipitation is snow. The question raised here is - 'How are Snow Storms formed'. Let us try to understand how these snow monsters are formed. Blizzards are severe snow storms. So the anatomy of formation of a snow storm or a blizzard, are the same, but the blizzard is several times more intense than a snow storm.

Snow storm is basically heavy snowfall. The formation of a snow storm begins when a high pressure system (an envelope of air over a very low temperature land mass), called a 'ridge' comes in contact with a substantially low pressure system (an envelope of air over a warmer land mass). Air from heavy pressure areas always moves towards low pressure areas to equalize pressure. Same way, in our case, the high pressure cold winds start blowing towards the low pressure areas. The low pressure air contains high moisture content. Clouds are formed as the hot humid air moves up, replaced by cold air below. Then finally when precipitation occurs, the water droplets coming down freeze due to low temperatures in a region and what we get is a snow storm! If the temperature falls very much below freezing point, an ice storm occurs! These snow storms occur mostly in winter but are also known to occur in early spring, as well as late autumn. Sometimes, they also occur in exceptionally cold summers! The most powerful snow storms commonly occur in March.

Interesting Snow Storms Facts
Now that you know how snow storms form, we can go into some interesting snow storms facts.

• A blizzard is a particularly nasty and violent form of snow storm in which high speed winds are coupled with snow fall. It has cold winds blowing at a speed in excess of 40 km/hr. In a blizzard, the visibility goes down to less than 500 feet!
• New York state has the most snowiest cities in the United States of America. That is, it's the most frequently and widely affected by snow storms.
• The most severely snow storm affected city in the United States is Valdez in Alaska, which receives and annual snowfall, amounting to 260 inches!
• All over the United States the average daily snowfall, caused by snow storms is 2 inches! In mountainous areas, it is almost 7 inches of snow fall every day!
• Snow storms create conditions that can lead to avalanches. Every year, hundreds of people are killed in the United States due to avalanches.
• The biggest snow storm in the United States occurred in 1967 in mid-western parts of the country. In Chicago, the storm accumulated 23 inches of snow in just 24 hours! It had winds in excess of 80.5 km/hr and the snow accumulation was up to 2 feet! Sadly, 76 people died in this snow storm.

Snow storms and especially blizzards can be dangerous atmospheric calamities of unpredictable nature. Advanced warning systems have been put in place which can help people in preparing for the onslaught of these natural disasters. Hope these snow storms facts have given you an idea about these freezing, violent and destructive phenomena of nature!