Blizzards Facts for Kids – 5 Brilliant Facts about Blizzards

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Updated on: Educator Review By: Michelle Connolly

Have you ever wanted to know more about blizzards? Here are five brilliant blizzards facts for kids.

Blizzards Facts for Kids Fact Number 1: What are Blizzards?

Blizzards are very strong snow storms that reduce how far you can see with all the snow and have very strong winds. There are three things every blizzard has that make it a blizzard.

Very high winds – the wind must be above 35 miles per hour to be blizzard wind

Low visibility – blizzards are storms that are so thick with snow that you can’t see more than a quarter of a mile in front of your face.

Lasting a long time- Blizzards are not over quickly, they have to last over 3 hours to be considered a blizzard rather than just a snowstorm.

If a snow storm has all these characteristics then it is called a blizzard.

Blizzards Facts for Kids
Rural snowy village during severe blizzard

Blizzards Facts for Kids Fact Number 2: Blizzards and Hurricanes

Hurricanes are massive wind storms that spin around because of the very strong winds that create them. Hurricane winds are above 74 miles per hour but can be more than 150 miles per hour. Blizzard winds can go above 100 miles per hour making them almost as windy as the strongest hurricane.

That is some very strong winds!

Blizzards Facts for Kids Fact Number 3: Blizzards is an American Word!

The word blizzard wasn’t always the name of a storm. The word used to mean a strong hit and in the American Civil War it was a word describing a round of shooting from muskets. The first time it was used to describe a snow storm was in an American newspaper. A newspaper called ‘The Advance’ in Chicago described a snow storm hitting their town as a blizzard in January of 1880. Blizzards hit towns hard so a word that used to mean a hard hit makes sense for such a violent type of weather. 

Blizzards Facts for Kids LearningMole
Folded Newspapers

Blizzards Facts for Kids Fact Number 4: Ground Blizzards

Some blizzards happen when there is no snow falling from the sky at all. These are called Ground Blizzards and Ground blizzards happen when snow has already fallen and then strong winds come along. The strong winds carry snow up into the air which means people can’t see very far ahead. The sky might have no clouds in it but it is still hard to see because of the snow blowing around.

Blizzards Facts for Kids Fact Number 5: Where Blizzards Happen?

There are lots of places on Earth that are likely to have blizzards because they get very cold weather and lots of snow. Blizzards happen the most in Russia, Antarctica, Northern Europe, Canada, and the Northern United States. The United States has around 19 blizzards a year. Surprisingly Antarctica has less blizzards every year than the United States and most of the blizzards there are ground blizzards.

Blizzards Facts for Kids LearningMole
Wooden houses covered with snow in mountainous valley in winter

We hope you enjoyed learning more things about blizzards as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic these blizzards are, you can move on to learn about other climate and weather stuff like: Thunder, Thunderstorms, Thunder and Lightning, Rainbows, Lightning, Floods, Earth’s Atmosphere, Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Blizzard, Wind and Tsunamis.

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