Talk:Blizzard

Definition

The German Wikipedia suggests that the word "Blizzard" may be derived from German "blitzartig" (=(fast) like lightning). A Google-search lead to contradictory results, so I didn't add it to the article. Does someone know more about this?

I am mailing the question to Merriam-Webster's language research service. I'll keep you updated. Munchkinguy 19:45, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

According to Merriam-Webster, the word Blizzard was invented in northwestern Iowa between 1860 and 1870. The origin is unknown. Munchkinguy 00:03, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Pending the outcome of Munchkinguy's research, I have trimmed the text relating to the origin of the word, and added a link to a relevant entry in an online etymology dictionary. Good luck. - mjb 17:43, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The word blizzard orignated in the town of Spencer, IA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.26.194.173 (talk) 17:40, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

http://www.jstor.org/pss/451841 BY: Rohan --69.141.124.243 (talk) 00:31, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

http://nsidc.org/snow/shovel.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.166.93.248 (talk) 18:33, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Blizzard = blitzartig. I saw it in a documentation on fox. Greez —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.166.60.81 (talk) 23:36, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

HAHA! FOX has been known to get its information from Wikipedia... often as the ONLY source. I don't think we can cite FOX who, for all we know, cited this very article!--Billy Nair (talk) 18:23, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

2003

Could we get a mention of the Blizzard of 2003? That was impressive, and caused some damage as well. (store roof collapses, DIA terminal roof collapse, travelers on cots in DIA, etc.)

I'd like to see an article for a non-US blizzard. The UK was virtually brought to a standstill with the one in January 2003, and there was very heavy snow in Scotland in December 1995, the coldest December since 1981. BillyH 06:40, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree, every one of the twelve major blizzards mentioned in this article has taken place at least partly in the US - the article should be more international in scope. Ygoloxelfer 17:23, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

This article got kinda screwed up after vandalism

You'll notice that the article looked like this:

october 5th 05

Then someone vandalized it and took some stuff out during their vandalization including the bottom half of the article. When the article was devandalized the bottom half was never returned. While I admit that the bottom half of the article wasn't the greatest, it was written by a student of mine (5th grade) and am sad to see it go.

It may be nice to ad one of those fancy tables that includes famous america blizzards (or it's own page) with damages, feet of snow, date, etc

Vandalism

Please watch this page for vandalism and revert any negative changes

A Blizzard can also be a strong wind current with blowing or falling snow.

I assume this referes to the general action of blowing and drifting snow, if so this has been mentioned here [[[1]]]

Armistice Day Blizzard

Why write about a North Dakota storm that killed 37 people, but not a Minnesota storm in which 49 people were killed, many of them hunters with light clothes on. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.103.17.163 (talk) 00:31, 9 February 2007 (UTC).

chart problem?

The chart says that the storm of the century took place in 1950, while the text says that it took place in 1993.

also, just wondering about the (willy) at the end of the article

I removed the Willy. I like the graph, but I'm removing it until someone can redo it with the correct year of 1993. Gopher backer 02:55, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Blizzard Pictures

The photos on the blizzard page are little old and outdated. The image of the train and buffalo blizzard certainly show the effect of snow drifts but does nothing to actually visually demonstrate a blizzard as it is occurring. I suggest some more descriptive and representative images be used. I recently posted a photo of a lake effect blizzard.

Ground Blizzard

Someone erased some of the headings

Hey, I'm doing a research project on blizzards, and I was on this page like 10 minutes ago, and now a whole section was erased, I believe by vandals.

Definition

[edit] Canada

[edit] United Kingdom

Ok I tried to fix it by going into the history... sorry I'm bad at formatting

Unfortunatlely this page is a vandal magnet for some reason. Gopher backer 14:44, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

YOU'RE A VANDAL MAGNET!!! BUAHAHAHA!!

You all are doomed! Don't say B-L-I-Z-Z-A-R-D again. Or look it up. If you do the Germans will drop a Atomic bomb on your house. Now, if you don't want to die turn off the computer right now(see intructions first), then spin around three times and say "I'm gullible." If you do this you are a gullible person. FOOLS! HAHAHAHAHAHA! You fell for it! HA!

Graph

First time in a discussion, so be gentle...But, the bar graph in this article showing cost of Blizzards in history is possibly misleading, as it does not seem to be adjusted for inflation.

The graph made me very interested in the damaging "superstorm of 1983"- but Wikipedia doens't have an article on it... is the year correct or does there just happen to be no article? -samaraphile

Picture

The picture has moved to its own page, but I don't see in the history where it happened. Was this intentional to save loading time? If so, the link ought to say "click here for a blizzard scene". Or was it accidental? In which case it should be restored. I haven't ever "done" a picture, so I'm reluctant to experiment here. Ortolan88

Canadian definition

So, what do they call a snowstorm with near-zero visibility that lasts four hours but has a windchill of "only" -20C? 86.143.48.55 (talk) 01:28, 29 January 2008 (UTC) what about the company Blizzard I think we should link off to that.--JLAC (talk) 23:39, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Semi-Protect

I would suggest that this article should be semi-protected due to excessive vandalism. -- IRP (talk) 00:52, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Etymology

A fact tag has been added to the etymology section. After doing some research I have found some sources that talk about the origins.

• http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9907E1DF133EE433A25754C0A9659C94609FD7CF
• http://blog.oup.com/2008/01/blizzard/
• http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0493(1899)27%5B18b%3AOOTWB%5D2.0.CO%3B2
• http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz/science/blizzard.php?wfo=fgz
• http://www.allwords.com/word-blizzard.html

They are not consistent on the etymology of the word and none of them completely corroborate the information that is in the article. A new name 2008 (talk) 19:49, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism Removed

The following statement was removed as it was blantly vandalism.

"Go to thesitetobe.wetpaint.com it is awesome!"

Quiksilver4Eyes (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 21:37, 7 February 2009 (UTC).

blizzard / snowstorm

What is the difference between blizzard and snowstorm? You have separate articles at least.--SM (talk) 05:59, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Your question exposed a fundamental problem with the lead section of this article, which has been rectified. Snowstorm has also been wikilinked, so users can compare the two different types of snowstorms. Thegreatdr (talk) 13:42, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

blizzards are cold.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.185.15.100 (talk) 16:35, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

"Historic" Blizzards?

"Historic" Blizzards or just "Blizzards" of the past? "Previous blizzards"? Historic implies some significance. "Previous blizzards" seems redundant but is perhaps a better heading. —Monado (talk) 18:12, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Where rain fall is unusual or rare?

The 1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph reads as follows: "Blizzards can bring near-whiteout conditions, and can paralyze regions for days at a time, particularly where rainfall is unusual or rare."

Shouldn't it be where snow fall is unusual or rare, or is it a largely unknown fact that deserts have more severe blizzards than other areas? 173.28.244.122 (talk) 03:12, 2 February 2011 (UTC)