Blizzard Vocabulary

“A blizzard leaves a road covered in dirty slush; it’s better to stay inside on a bitter day like this.”

More Blizzard Vocabulary and Blizzard Facts:

• Officially, a blizzard needs sustained winds (or frequent gusts) of at least 35 mph, combined with falling or blowing snow that cuts visibility to under a quarter mile, lasting three hours or more.
• The word “blizzard” originally described a violent blow, and even gunfire, in 19th-century America, before it came to mean a severe snowstorm.
• A “ground blizzard” can happen even without fresh snowfall, when strong winds simply pick up snow that’s already on the ground.
• A “whiteout” occurs when blowing snow is so thick that it becomes impossible to tell the ground from the sky.
• Slush forms when fallen snow begins to melt and mixes with water, dirt, or salt on the ground.

Talking About The Cold:

• Freezing (Adjective): Extremely cold.
• Bitter (Adjective): Extremely cold, in a way that feels harsh.
• Icy (Adjective): Very cold; covered in ice.
• Frigid (Adjective): Very cold in temperature.
• Chilly (Adjective): Uncomfortably cold.
• Arctic (Adjective): Extremely cold, like the polar regions.

Snow has given English its own idiom, too. If you have far too much work to deal with, you might say you’re ‘snowed under‘ – just like a town buried under a blizzard! It’s a little similar to feeling under the weather, though that phrase is used for feeling unwell rather than being overloaded with tasks.

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