A blizzard is a snowstorm. Strong winds blow the snow into drifts and it can be difficult to see. A blizzard can bring a busy city to a standstill. People and traffic can’t move about, and schools and offices have to be closed.
Amazing! You don’t only get snow in cold places. In 1981, snow fell in the Kalahari Desert in Africa for the first time in living memory. The temperature dropped to a chilly minus 5°C.
Which is the snowiest place?
The snowiest place in the world is Mt Rainier in Washington, USA. In one year, snow 30 metres deep fell there. That’s enough snow to build a snowman as tall as 17 people. Fancy having a go?
What is a hailstone made from?
A hailstone is a small ball of ice that starts life in a thundercloud. Inside the cloud, a chip of ice is tossed up and down many times. It gets coated in layers of ice, just like the layers of an onion.
Is it true? The biggest hailstone was the size of a peach.
No. It was bigger than that! Hailstones are usually the size of peas but the biggest was the size of a Watermelon. It fell in Kansas, USA, in 1970.
Picture Credit : Google