How do blizzards start

When warm air and cold air are brought together, a front is formed and precipitation occurs. Warm air can also rise to form clouds and blizzard snows as it flows up a mountainside. What Are Snowflakes?

Snowflakes are made of ice crystals. Each snowflake is made of as many as ice crystals. Some snow crystals are symmetrical, like the type that you cut from paper. They form a hexagonal shape because that is how water molecules organize themselves as they freeze. Others are small and irregularly shaped. If they spin like tops as they fall to the ground, they may be perfectly symmetrical when they hit the Earth. But if they fall sideways, they will end up lopsided. Even though most have a hexagonal structure, there are so many ways that water molecules can arrange themselves as the water freezes, that some people say that there are no two snowflakes alike.

Probably no two snowflakes have exactly the same arrangement of molecules. Because of this, it is crucial that everyone stays inside during a blizzard and knows how blizzards form. Most people who live in areas where blizzards regularly hit usually keep extra food, water, and oil lamps to help them have light in case the power goes out.

A small portable kerosene heater is needed for heat too. Because of the way that air moves throughout the United States, how do blizzards form in some places and not others?

Certain areas that are far away from where the cold air from the North blows usually escape this type of winter snow storm.

Such areas are the bottom half of Texas close to the Gulf of Mexico and California. But the states that are further up have no such luck.

The Midwest and the Great Plains regions get hit the hardest since they are perfectly positioned to receive a combination of the hot and cold fronts.

Alaska and Washington get the most blizzards out of all of the states in North America. But the states that border the Great Lakes region get hit with them too. In fact, the blizzard that happened in January of was considered to be the worst blizzard that Ohio and other nearby states had in many years.

They can occur anywhere in the world. Snow whirling around in wind blowing faster than highway speed limits makes the whole world look white. The wind and the snow may cause a power outage and collapse roofs. Some blizzards, called ground blizzards, have no falling snow. Instead, snow that had fallen before the blizzard is blown around or drifts in a way to create these conditions.

Blizzard conditions usually build up on the northwest side of a powerful storm system. The storm produces ample snow while strong winds develop because of a difference in pressure between the low pressure of the storm and the high pressure beyond the storm. Conditions during a blizzard can be severe.

For a blizzard to form, warm air must rise over cold air. Winds pull cold air toward the equator from the poles and bring warm air toward the poles from the equator.

When warm air and cold air are brought together, a front is formed and precipitation occurs. The Russian Steppes in the southeast have hot, dry summers and very cold winters. The north and northeastern areas around the Black Sea have milder winters, but frequent rainfall all the year round.