MAN AND NATURAL DISASTERS --- Blizzard; A Storm Of Unimaginable ferocity.

May 10, 1996 is one of the most tragic days in human history. That was during the time that climbing Mount Everest was what everyone wanted to do. Three teams of mountain climbers were trying to make their way up Mount Everest, they even set out too early so as to get to the summit and return back to their camp before it gets dark. You know that everyone's pace can't be the same, thus it took a lot of time more than they estimated to get to the summit. When they managed to get to the top instead of them to start coming back immediately since they are already behind schedule, they started taking pictures and celebrating.

As they started their descent, all of a sudden within a space of five minutes, a heavy storm of unimaginable ferocity hit and the whole place was covered with darkness, and that was the beginning of their sorrow tale. The blizzard was terrible, they could barely breathe, the cold was so much, and for two days and night it continued. So many of the climbers died, the few that managed to survive lost their hands, nose and even fingers to severe frostbite.

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This account is just very small when compared to what blizzards can do in its full rage. The painful part is that most people that die from blizzards thought it was just an ordinary snowfall when it began, which is a very big mistake that leads to their death. Today, we will be discussing on this natural disaster called blizzard, how it's formed, what causes it's and what to do in case it occurs close to you. This discussion is going to be an interesting one, I assure you.

WHAT IS A BLIZZARD

Blizzards are deadly winter storms that consists mainly of heavy winds and snow which always result to low visibility. What the low visibility means is that when a blizzard occurs you can barely see what is in front of you. Blizzard are most times accompanied by severe cold and snowfalls but that does not necessarily mean that they are required for the occurence of a blizzard. A blizzard can occur without them. A typical example is the ground blizzards were strong winds lift up snows that have previously fallen, (note that the snow is not falling at that moment) and yet it still causes severe low visibility as the blizzard that occurs when snow is falling.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SNOWSTORM AND A BLIZZARD

Even though that most people use the words interchangeably, blizzards and snowstorms are not the same. One of the ways blizzards differ from snowstorm is in the wind speed. Not all strong winds or storms result to blizzards. Snowstorms can happen in storms with wind speeds that are less than 35 miles per hour, but for a blizzard to occur, the minimum speed of the wind have to be more than 35 miles per hour and it must be able to carry a lot of snow with it.

Another difference between the two is that during a snowstorm occurence snow must be falling a the time of the storm, while a blizzard occurrence doesn't necessarily need the snow to be falling at that time.

Another thing is that for a storm to be regarded as a blizzard, blowing snow associated with it should also be able to causes low visibilities that ranges from 400 meters to nearly 0m. This storm and low visibility must last for more than 3 hours for it to be regarded as a blizzard.

FORMATION OF BLIZZARDS

There are three major things that are needed for the formation of blizzards. They are cold air, moisture and rising air.

- Cold air

Remember that blizzards are mainly storm winds which tosses snow around, thus for a blizzard to occur we need snow. Cold air is required for the formation of snow, and for a snow to form, fall down to the earth's surface and still remain as snowflakes, the temperature of the cloud were it is formed and the temperature of the air at the ground level where it falls to must be at extreme cold and below freezing temperature. This is because if the air that is close to the earth's surface is warm the snow flakes melts on its way down and changes to freezing rain.

- Moisture

The second, which is moisture is of great importance for the formation of precipitation and the clouds. We call the moisture in air water vapor, and most of the water vapor in air are as a result of air blowing across the surface of a water body. Thus, you can rightly say that large lakes, oceans and seas are the main source of water vapor. Remember that as the air moves over these water bodies evaporation occurs, thus some of the water in the surface of the water bodies turn to water vapor and rises with the air up to the atmosphere to form cloud and then precipitation.

Note that precipitation means all forms of water particles, which can be in the liquid form like rain, or in solid form like snow, that falls from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. The precipitation we are talking about in this article is snow.

- Rising air

Even though that cold air helps in formation of snow, it cannot hold much water vapor, thus warm air is needed. Before a blizzard forms, warm air have to rise over cold air, and this can happen through any of these following ways.

a). Warm air rises over cold air whenever the wind pulls cold air towards the equator from the pole while at the same time it pulls warm air towards the pole from the equator.

b). It can also rise when it flows up a mountainside. But when the warm and the cold air meets, a front is created which leads to the formation of precipitation.

STAGES THAT ARE INVOLVED IN THE FORMATION OF BLIZZARD

Let us now list the step by step stages involved in the formation of blizzard.

The first stage is a decrease in temperature

The early stages of blizzard is characterized by a low temperature (around 20 degrees Fahrenheit and even 10 degrees Fahrenheit for severe cases). The combination of warm and cold air creates a blizzard storm which has a low atmospheric temperature that is perfect for the formation of snows. Soon snow starts falling.

Thus, whenever you observe a sudden drop in atmospheric temperature just know that there is a likelihood that a blizzard will occur, because a drop in temperature signifies the coming of a severe snowfall.

The next is an increase in the level of Snowfall.

All blizzards starts with the falling of snows but not all snowfall ends with a blizzard. As the atmospheric temperature drops very low, the rate of the snowfall increases, with the fall becoming very continuous and consistent. This continues until a point is reached when the snowfall becomes too severe and it becomes integrated as a part of the storm.

Strong winds and low visibility.

Next thing to expect after the snowfall becomes heavy should be a very strong wind of which it's speed is not less than 35mph. What this wind does is to pick up snows from the ground and then it tosses them away in all direction, and as this continues, everywhere would become very white. As this continues visibility becomes a problem to the extent that you can't be able to see farther than 400 meters before you. When a whiteout occurs the visibility can be reduced nearly up to 0 m.

TYPES OF BLIZZARD.

Basically we have two types of blizzards, they are

- Severe Blizzard.

Severe Blizzards are accompanied by very strong winds that move at the speed of 45 miles per hour. The weather condition during this type of blizzard is very cold and the temperature can go down up to 10 Fahrenheit or even more lower. This type of blizzard always results to a whiteout, and when this occurs, the level of visibility is almost equal to zero. Snow and ice falls as this type of blizzard occurs.

- Ground Blizzard.

Ground blizzards are slightly different from the normal blizzard in that no new precipitation is formed. Snow doesn't necessarily need to be falling for a ground blizzard to occur, instead during a ground blizzard the already fallen snow or ice on the surface of the earth is been lifted up the ground by strong winds.

We sometimes include the Nor'easter blizzard though it is not conventionally accepted as a type of blizzard.

- Nor'easter Blizzard.

The nor'easter blizzard occur on the Atlantic side of Canada and East Coast of the USA. The nor'easter blizzard gets its name from the direction of the wind that carries it and the storm that is associated with it can start from a distance that is very far from the area of occurence. This distance can be as far as the North of the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico.

A nor'easter blizzard,
Author: VIIRs IMAGERY, CC BY-SA 3.0

These storms that accompanies blizzard looks much like hurricane. Places that are more prone to blizzards are mostly areas which are flat and some areas in the US, Australia and the United Kingdom.

DANGERS OF BLIZZARDS.

Blizzards are very terrible, in fact they are ranked as one of the earth's most deadily storms, and whenever they occur, to travel or to go to anywhere becomes a problem. The effects of snowstorms are even minor to that of Blizzards, snowstorms just distrupt traffic, but you can still manage to make your way home. But when blizzards occur, all forms of travels becomes impossible. Almost all occurance of blizzards results to death, when a severe blizzard occurs, the death toll can reach up to hundreds and even thousand.

It reduces visibility, thus whenever blizzards occur, all car drivers have to stop their car since they can't see what is in front of them and may even drive off the road if they continue driving. Blizzards normally last for up to 3 hours, those that are on the road when it starts have to remain on the road till it stops. Many people have died on the way while being rushed to the hospital during a blizzard, due to the wait for visibility to become clearer. Some deaths that occur during a blizzard are due to the extreme cold condition that accompanies it, thus people freeze to death in their cars while waiting for it to stop.

Blizzards always come unannounced, so definitely some people might still be on the road when it sets in, those that were outside and couldn't find shelter and warmth experience extreme cold and most times die from frostbite or hypothermia. The worst is that even when the storms is over, rescuers find it hard to rescue people since their cars are buried deep under mounds of snow.

MAN AND BLIZZARDS

Even though blizzards are not as common as tornadoes, tsunami and other natural disasters, whenever they hit the earth, their aftermath is terrible. I will be listing out few blizzards incident, we will be going as back as the 19th century.

Snow winter of 1880-1881

The first we will be considering is the white winter of 1880-1881. In this period, the US experienced the worst winter ever. The blizzards chose the worst of times to occur, the first to occur happened in November just before farmers were able to harvest their crops. Soon matters became worst because it became almost impossible to bring in food from other places since other previous blizzards made travels, even by train impossible. People suffered so much from hunger, matters were made worst when the train stations had to stop their services completely in January 1881 due to the fact that the snows keep covering train tracks despite how many times they removed them.

As if it wasn't enough, on February 2, 1881 a blizzard that lasted for 9 days started, it was too severe that snows closed entrances to cities. This time people could not endure the hunger anymore, they had to tunnel through the snow so as to get food supplies, liveatocks and even woods for cooking. When the blizzard finally ended and everything calmed down, the amount of water that melted from the snow caused a huge flood which washed out huge areas that are close to the Missouri river.

The Iran Blizzard of 1972

This blizzard started on February 3, 1972 and ended on February 9, 1972 and it's regarded as one of the most deadilest blizzards that have ever occurred since human history. The height of the snow that fell was up to 10 feet, and there was even places that the impact was even worst, with the snow rising up to 26 feet in places like the Southern Iran. It was terrible, a whole village of more than 4000 people was completely buried beneath the snow. The number of people that died due to that incident was approximately 4000.

The Armistice Day Blizzard

One morning in 1947, on a day that the weather was warm an peaceful and there was all indication that it was going to be a good day, people were taking their goods to the market and hunters were really making good kills. All of a sudden the blizzard hit, it continued from the night up to the next day. No one was prepared for it, both the hunters and the traders that went to the market were not dressed for that kind of weather. The number of people that died from that event was 145, not counting those that drowned while trying to make it back to the land.

The Schoolhouse Blizzard in 1888

Another event in which the blizzard happened all of a sudden is the Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888. This one is so heartbreaking. On that day people went about there business, children went to school, while their parents went to their workplace, there was no indication that it was going to rain talk less of a blizzard occurance. All of a sudden, in this early hours of the day the storm hit, thousands were left stranded especially children that were in their one-room schoolhouses. The death toll was about 235 people, lots of them were kids.

HOW TO GET PREPARED FOR A BLIZZARD

The first thing to do is to discuss with your family on how you guys will contact each other when a blizzard occurs and what to do in case of emergency. Since a blizzard can occur at any time and can happen unexpectedly, thus, the whole family might not be together when it happens.

Always keep an emergency kit that you and your family can survive with for three days incase a blizzard occurs unexpectedly, with part of it in the car (in case there arise an urgent need to travel) and most of it in the house. Keep a stocks of firewood for the heater and make sure you get extra heavy blankets, coats and sleeping bags for the whole family, it really helps.

Always keep a functional heater in your house, it will be of invaluable help during this extreme cold conditions. Remember to keep them away from the furnitures or anything that can catch fire.

Keep your house properly insulated so that when this extreme cold conditions start, the warm air in will still remain inside the house. Also keep a source of energy you can depend on in case power lines gets damaged by the blizzard.

Most people died as a result of carbon monoxide that were emitted as waste products from materials they burn for heat during this extreme cold conditions, so make sure that you have a carbon monoxide detector in your house and keep a fire extinguisher close-by.

Always check the roof of your house from time to time to make sure that the roof us able to carry any amount of snow or water accumulation

Make sure that the family car is always in good working condition with the antifreeze, defroster and heater working perfectly well in case there arise a need to travel in such extreme condition. Always make sure that the car's fuel tank is at least half full. Make sure that there is a blanket, a jumper cables, phone charger and an ice scraper in the car, you are definitely going to need it.

Do not depend on electricity. Get a cellphone that has a long battery life and has emergency charging option like solar e.t.c because there is a likelihood that a power failure would occur during a blizzard.

HOW TO SURVIVE A BLIZZARD

If it is possible, make sure that you are inside the house during a blizzard. But if you. must go outside, make sure that the clothe you are wearing has series of layers of loose-fitting that can keep you warm, the clothe has to be water repellent. Do not wear a very tight clothe, you can get easily affected by the cold that way.

Whether you are in the house or in a car cover yourself properly. Put on a hat and wear mittens, make sure that you cover your mouth with a scarf as it helps to reduce heat loss.

Always keep yourself dry, if your clothe gets wet change it immediately to avoid loss of body heat. This is because wet clothes transmits heat from your body to the surrounding very easily, that is the reason while you feel very cold few minutes after you get drenched by the rain.

While walking outside the house, watch your steps so that you won't slip on snowy walkways.

If there is a need for you to shovel through anything before the blizzard stops, just take it easy as you do so to avoid overexertion. Overexertion is known to cause heart attacks especially during winter periods. Lift only light loads and whenever you get tired rest.

If there is a very important need for you to travel in such a severe condition, make sure that you don't travel alone and let the time for travel be by day and not by night. Always inform the people back home were you are from time to time so that it would be easy for them to find you in case they don't hear from you at an expected time. Avoid taking shortcuts, stay on the main road.

The Aftermath of a Blizzard

MY THOUGHTS

Advancement in technology had made it possible for meterologists to predict blizzards accurately, yet that doesn't really prevent it from burying a whole city beneath it or stopping it from killing people. The only significant improvement is on the rescue mission, there are now better tools for digging cars out of snow moulds than then one we had in 1881.

All thanks to technology, information now travels very fast thus people can be easily notified about oncoming storms. Neverthless, it is still impossible to be completely prepared for a blizzard, there are still lot of probabilities associated with it, what if there is a power outage and the communication is down? How can people know that a blizzard may likely occur?

Since there is really nothing man can do to prevent blizzards from happening, the only thing that is left is for man to be always on alert, always make sure that your roof is strong enough to carry any weight of snow. If you notice snow falling in an unusual way, run into the house, and any time you leave the house, even if the weather is clear and there is no indication of a blizzard , make sure you cover yourself properly.

@whileponderin.

REFERENCES

Difference between snowstorm and a blizzard

How to prepare for a blizzard

How blizzards are formed

Blizzard Wpedia

Visibility

Dangers of blizzards

Stages in a blizzard formation

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