BLIZZARD
Wild Word Friday!
Here in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we are very aware of the difference between a snow storm and a BLIZZARD.
You can drive in a snow storm. It’s not fun, and it is dangerous, but you can. In a snow storm, you can walk to your neighbor’s house. In a BLIZZARD you shouldn’t drive; you shouldn’t even attempt a short walk. A BLIZZARD is characterized by winds over 40 miles per hour and ground snow conditions that allow those winds to produce zero visibility. Snow storms are an altogether gentler cousin.
In the picture below, the giant curl over New England is a BLIZZARD. The lake effect snows over the Great Lakes area might be considered a snow storm, sort of.
The most vicious BLIZZARD ever recorded took place in Iran in 1972, a country not normally plagued by BLIZZARDs. Four thousand people died.
The word BLIZZARD is relatively new. According to THE CHRONOLOGY OF WORDS AND PHRASES by Linda and Roger Flavell, BLIZZARD (in reference to a snow storm) first appeared in 1870 in the “Northern Vindicator,” a newspaper published in Estherville, Iowa. Six years later the “Monthly Weather Review” published the following information: “very severe storms known in local parlance as ‘BLIZZARDs’ were reported . . . as prevailing in Iowa and Wisconsin.”
Other authorities site source words such as blister and bluster, and Davy Crockett’s use (early 1800s) of BLIZZARD in reference to shooting at a buck, but, wherever the word was first used, everyone seems to agree that BLIZZARD is an “Americanism.” I’d love to know if there is a Native American word out there (or Gaelic or Far Eastern or Indo-European, for that matter) that may be the “unknown” antecedent of BLIZZARD.
Q4U: Do you have BLIZZARDs where you live? Have you ever been caught in one – on foot or in a car?
Blessings and NO BLIZZARDS!
Sue
(Photo from Wikipedia. Information from Wikipedia, THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY and THE CHRONOLOGY OF WORDS AND PHRASES.)
We seldom expect real blizzards in our southwestern BC coastal location, but when we lived in Alberta we experienced whiteouts… blinding, blowing snow with winds that created a wind-chill factor of -45 degrees. Those are scary! I prefer to view any kind of snowstorm from the warmth of indoors.
I always have to remind myself that your summers happen when our winters happen. (I’m enjoying those Australian flowers on my wall!)
Over here in Perth we do not have blizzards or snowstorms? We are in middle off heat wave it’s the hottest it’s been for 50 years! We are melting!!!
We’ve had a mild winter, too, Lynn. Hooray! I love the way you put that – “the deception of invincibility”. Those were the days! Praise God we survived them!
Here in Nova Scotia we certainly do have blizzards, but none yet this season. We are having a much milder winter here this year, so far. Today a snowstorm is moving in, though, and the ground is white again.
As for being caught in a blizzard, I imagine my husband and I have driven in one before, in our younger days when invincibility was still the deception. 🙂 I do enjoy a blizzard as long as I know my family is safe inside and we do not lose our power .. or not for long, anyway.