Geometric Snowflakes 2015 Forever Stamps — Holiday Celebrations Series

Antonio Alcalá and Leslie Badani designed the 2015 snowflake stamps, working through several snowflake forms in different colors.

When snow becomes a blizzard

Flurries, squalls, snowstorms, nor'easters and snow bursts can all drop a great deal of snow, and none of them is technically a blizzard.

The threshold is specific: snow falling continuously for at least three hours, winds of at least 35 miles per hour, and visibility cut below a quarter mile. Miss any of those and it is simply snowfall — though ordinary snowfall can escalate into a blizzard when conditions shift.

Why they are dangerous after they end

The storm itself is only part of it. Power lines come down and outages follow. With heating limited and temperatures low, pipes freeze and burst, which floods homes and ruins property. Roads become slick, blocked, or impassable outright. Roofs give way under accumulated weight. And the physical strain of shoveling has caused more than a few heart attacks.

Meteorology cannot make a blizzard milder. What forecasting does is give people in the path enough warning to prepare, which is most of the difference between an inconvenience and a disaster.

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