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Nor'easters can occur in the eastern United States any time between October and April, when moisture and cold air are plentiful. A Nor'easter is named for the winds that blow in from the northeast and drive the storm up the east coast along the Gulf Stream, a band of warm water that lies off the Atlantic coast. They are known for dumping heavy amounts of rain and snow, producing hurricane-force winds, and creating high surfs that cause severe beach erosion and coastal flooding. Winter Storms

How do winter storms form?
Winter storms derive their energy from the clash of two air masses of different temperatures and moisture levels. Winter storms usually form when an air mass of cold, dry, Canadian air moves south and interacts with a warm, moist air mass moving north from the Gulf of Mexico. The point where these two air masses meet is called a front. If cold air advances and pushes away the warm air, it forms a cold front. When warm air advances, it rides up over the denser, cold air mass to form a warm front. If neither air mass advances, it forms a stationary front.

What are snowflakes?
Snowflakes are made of ice crystals. Each snowflake is six-sided and made of as many as 200 ice crystals. Snowflakes form in clouds where the temperature is below freezing. The ice crystals form around tiny bits of dirt that has been carried up into the atmosphere by the wind. As the snow crystals grow, they become heavier and fall toward the ground. Why is snow white?
Bright snow blinds us with its gleaming white color because it reflects beams of white light. Instead of absorbing light, snow's complex structure prevents the light from shining through its lattice formation. A beam of white sunlight entering a snow bank is so quickly scattered by a zillion ice crystals and air pockets that most of the light comes bouncing right back out of the snow bank. What little sunlight is absorbed by snow is absorbed equally over the wavelengths of visible light thus giving snow its white appearance. So while many natural objects get their blue, red, and yellow colors from absorbing light, snow is stuck with its white color because it reflects light.

What is thundersnow? How is snow formed?
Snow is commonly formed when water vapor undergoes deposition, which is when water vapor changes directly to ice without first becoming a liquid, high in the atmosphere at a temperature of less than 32°F and then falls to the ground. What is sleet?
Sleet is just rain drops that freeze into ice pellets before reaching the ground. Sleet usually bounces when hitting a surface and does not stick to objects. However, it can accumulate like snow and cause a hazard to motorists.
What is an ice storm?
An ice storm is a type of winter storm caused by freezing rain. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least 0.25-inch of ice on exposed surfaces.
What is freezing rain?
Freezing rain is just rain that falls onto a surface with a temperature below freezing. This causes it to freeze to surfaces, such as trees, cars, and roads, forming a coating or glaze of ice. Even small accumulations of ice can cause a significant hazard. How do ice storms form?
Ice storms form when a layer of warm air is between two layers of cold air. Frozen precipitation melts while falling into the warm air layer, and then proceeds to refreeze in the cold layer above the ground. This creates freezing rain or a glaze of ice.

What is frost? What is a frost quake?
Frost is white ice crystals that form on a surface, like the ground or leaves of a plant. Frost is created when the air temperature drops below freezing and the water vapor in the air freezes into ice crystals.

How is lake-effect snow formed?
As the cold air flows over the warm lake water, the relatively warm water heats the air's bottom layer as lake moisture evaporates into the cold air. Since warm air is lighter or less dense than cold air, the heated air rises and begins to cool. As the air cools, the moisture that evaporated into it condenses and forms clouds and snow begins falling from the cloud if the air is humid enough. (Graphic Credit: USA TODAY.) What is a Nor'easter?

What is Wind Chill? What is an Alberta Clipper? Click Here to calculate the Wind Chill.
An Alberta clipper is an area of low pressure that generally forms over Alberta, Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains. They develop east of the Rockies because air flowing eastward over the mountains creates favorable conditions. Once an Alberta Clipper forms it usually moves very rapidly to the southeast across the USA's northern Plains and then to the east off the mid-Atlantic Coast. Clippers usually cause only light precipitation with very few producing major snowstorms. However, if conditions are favorable, some Alberta clippers can rapidly intensify off the East Coast once the storm taps the relatively warm moist air over the Atlantic Ocean. The storms that rapidly intensify sometimes spread heavy snow over New England and southeastern Canada. Generally, the main weather features associated with Alberta clippers are some light snow and a reinforcement of cold air over the USA.
What is frostbite? How do blizzards form?

A blizzard is a long-lasting snowstorm with very strong winds and intense snowfall. You need three things to have a blizzard; cold air at the surface, lots of moisture, and lift. Warm air must rise over cold air.
What is an avalanche?
An avalanche is a moving mass of snow that may contain ice, soil, rocks, and uprooted trees. The height of a mountain, the steepness of its slope, and the type of snow lying on it all help determine the likelihood of an avalanche. Avalanches begin when an unstable mass of snow breaks away from a mountainside and moves downhill. The growing river of snow picks up speed as it rushes down the mountain. Avalanches have been known to reach speeds of 245 miles an hour (394 kilometers per hour)—about four times as fast as the speediest downhill skier.
Click Here to learn more about Avalanche Saftey.
Know the Lingo
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES - Issued for accumulations of snow, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, and sleet which will cause significant inconveniences and, if caution is not exercised, could lead to life-threatening situations.

Thundersnow is when thunder and lighting occur during a snowstorm. This occurs most often in late winter or early spring. To get thundersnow, you need a mass of cold air on top of warm air, plus moist air closer to the ground. Thundersnow starts out like a summer thunderstorm. The sun heats the ground and pushes masses of warm, moist air upward, creating unstable air columns. As it rises, the moisture condenses to form clouds, which are jostled by internal turbulence. The "tricky part" for making thundersnow is creating that atmospheric instability in the wintertime. For thundersnow to occur, the air layer closer to the ground has to be warmer than the layers above, but still cold enough to create snow. During thundersnow events, heavy snowfall is to be expected. In some cases, two inches per hour is possible.

Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area.

Winter Storm Safety Tips
BEFORE A WINTER STORM: Have a disaster plan and prepare a disaster supplies kit for your home and car. Include a first aid kit, emergency food supply, bottled water, battery-operated radio, flashlight, protective clothing, and blankets. Don't forget, be aware of changing weather. DURING A WINTER STORM: Stay indoors and dress warmly. Eat regularly, because food provides the body with energy for producing its own heat. Also, drink lots of water. If you must go outside, wear layered clothing, mittens and a hat. Watch for signs of hypothermia and frostbite. Remember to keep dry. Always change wet clothing to prevent the loss of body heat. If you must drive, carry a cell phone. Always, keep the gas tank full. Don't forget, let someone know where you're going, just in case your car gets stuck. If you're car gets stuck, stay with it and wait for help unless help is visible within 100 yards. Use maps and car mats to stay warm.

AFTER A WINTER STORM: Avoid driving until conditions have improved. Avoid overexertion! Heart attacks from shoveling snow are the leading cause of deaths during the winter. Also, check on neighbors to make sure they're okay.

Frost quakes are non-tectonic seismic events, meaning they are not caused by the shifting of the Earth's tectonic plates. Also known as cryoseisms, frost quakes are caused by a sudden rapid freezing of ground and bedrock, usually when temperatures go from above freezing to below zero. As moisture absorbed in the rock and soil freezes, it expands. This puts a great amount of stress on the areas around it. Eventually, the stress is too much and the soil and rock will crack in an "explosive" manner, creating a loud sound and even shaking the ground surface. Since temperatures are coldest in the overnight hours, most people experience frost quakes in the middle of the night. Winter Storm Activities
Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about winter weather. In this activity, kids investigate aspects of winter weather, such as temperature and wind. They familiarize themselves with weather-related words. It's a great activity for K-2nd graders.

Cold air moves over warm water and is warmed from below. Moisture evaporates in the air.

Warm moist air rises downwind of lakes and forms heavy snow.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about winter weather. In this activity, kids learn how winter storms form and about the different types of fronts. It's a great activity for 3rd-5th graders. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Measuring Snow Experiment: Here is a great experiment that lets kids measure snow. They let the snow melt and then measure it again. It teaches kids that snow is very dense and is why it holds more space than water.

The wind chill is the temperature your body feels when the air temperature is combined with the wind speed. The higher the wind speed the faster exposed areas of your body lose heat and the colder you feel.Melting Snow Experiment: Here is another experiment that teaches kids the difference between the freezing and melting process. It allows kids to take the temperature of a glass of snow. Then, watch the snow melt and observe how the temperature changed.

Frost Experiment: Here is a great experiment that lets kids make frost. They can see how dew turns into frost in a matter of minutes.Examining Snowflakes Experiment: Here is a great experiment that lets kids see snowflakes up close. They can examine the snowflake's six sides.
Pressure Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows how pressure is created in our atmosphere by sucking an egg in a bottle. This is a very cool experiment!
Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.
Make A Barometer Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a barometer.

Evaporation Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows kids how evaporation takes place.

Frostbite is damage to the skin due to prolonged exposure to cold temperatures, usually below 32° F.

WINTER STORM WATCH - Alerts the public to the possibility of a blizzard, heavy snow, heavy freezing rain, or heavy sleet. Winter Storm Watches are usually issued 12 to 48 hours before the beginning of a winter storm.

WINTER STORM WARNING - Issued when hazardous winter weather in the form of heavy snow, heavy freezing rain, or heavy sleet is occurring. Winter Storm Warnings are usually issued 12 to 24 hours before the event is expected.

BLIZZARD WARNING - Issued for sustained or gusty winds of 35 mph or more, and falling or blowing snow creating visibilities at or below 1/4 mile. These conditions should persist for 3 hours.

FROST/FREEZE WARNING - Issued when below freezing temperatures are expected.

LAKE EFFECT SNOW ADVISORY - Issued when accumulation of lake effect snow will cause significant inconvenience.

LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING - Issued when heavy lake effect snow is occurring.

WIND CHILL ADVISORY - Issued when the wind chill temperature is forecast to be between -15°F to -24°F.

WIND CHILL WARNING - Issued when the wind chill temperature is forecast to be -25°F or lower.

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Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

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Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

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Scholastic Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers

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Explore Scholastic Teaching Tools for teaching resources, printables, book lists, and more. Enhance your classroom experience with expert advice!

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Witness Account

"The snowstorm I'll never forget"
David George Gordon was a junior in high school in January 1967 — the month that the big blizzard hit his hometown of Chicago, Illinois.

Before the big snowstorm hit, the weather had been unusually warm. Eight days before the storm, the temperature had dipped to a bone-chilling eight degrees (F). Five days after that, the temperature had climbed to a spring-like 65 degrees (F) — a record high for that date.

Around five o'clock in the morning, on Thursday, January 26, the first snowflakes started to fall. They continued to fall all day and, by Friday morning, nearly two feet of snow covered the ground. That set a record for the most snow to fall in Chicago, beating the old record, set in 1930, by almost four inches.

WINTER WONDERLAND
After the snow stopped falling on Friday, my mom sent my older brother and me outside to shovel all that snow from the sidewalk in front of our house. It was hard work but we didn't mind. When we finished, we invited a few friends to have a huge snowball fight in our backyard.

The entire city was a Winter Wonderland. The cold wind from Lake Michigan had piled the snow into huge drifts, six feet deep in some places. We walked a few blocks to the neighborhood park and spent the rest of the afternoon sledding and building snowmen.

When we got too cold, we came inside for a change of clothes and cups of hot cocoa. We were having too much fun to even think about the snow's more serious effects.

THE CITY SHUTS DOWN
It continued to snow, off and on, throughout the weekend. The temperature was below freezing, even during the daytime, so the snow didn't melt. With all that snow on the ground, it was impossible for cars and buses to get around. People had to walk everywhere. The streets looked like a scene from an old Russian folk tale.

On Sunday night, we listened to the radio. The announcer told us that classes would be cancelled at nearly all Chicago schools the next day. Most offices would be closed, too. People were stranded at O'Hare International Airport, because the planes couldn't take off or land.

Schools and businesses stayed closed for several days. Even more snow fell. Later, the Department of Streets and Sanitation, whose job includes plowing the streets, reported that 75 million tons of snow had covered Chicago in a thick, white blanket.

STORM BRINGS SADNESS & JOY
The snowstorm caused big problems in other parts of the city. A total of sixty people died, most from heart attacks while shoveling snow. Several froze to death, after falling asleep outdoors.

Unfortunately, some people took advantage of the situation, breaking shop windows and stealing the things inside. The police arrested 273 of the storm thieves, and tragedy hit when a young girl was accidentally killed at one crime scene.

There were bright spots. I read in one newspaper that train cars packed with snow were sent south to Florida, where they delivered a present to children in the "Sunshine State" who had never seen snow before.

I SAVE OUR PORCH
Lucky for my family, our snow woes were not too bad. We had one close call, though. When the snow stopped falling, my mother called me into the kitchen. She tried to keep calm as she explained that our home's second-story porch might collapse under the weight of all the snow.

My mother had a good reason to be frightened. One cubic foot of dry snow weighs about three pounds. When it starts to melt, the wet snow is much heavier, about 21 pounds per cubic foot. The five feet of wet snow that covered our ten-foot by ten-foot porch weighed a total of 1,050 pounds!

How could we safely remove the snow? It was piled so high that we couldn't push open the porch door. Not to be stopped, my mom had a plan. She opened a window and had me crawl through it, onto the porch. Then she passed me a shovel and I went to work, clearing off the snow.

That was a real chore, lifting all that weight with my shovel. My clothes were all sweaty and my shoulders and arms ached by the time I went back inside the house.

NO MORE SNOW
My adventure ended a few days later, after the streets were free of snow and my high school opened its doors again. When the weather warmed and all that snow started to melt, we Chicagoans faced a new kind of problem. Every 10 inches of snow that melts produces about an inch of water. Soon, many Chicago streets were filled with giant pools of water. Crossing them was like wading across a lake!

After all these years, though, one picture from the Great Snow of 1967 is still stuck in my head. It's the memory of radio antennas sticking up from the snow, attached to cars buried deep below. It's a sight I bet I'll never see again.

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Scholastic.com | Online Activities: Weather Watch

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Witness Account "The snowstorm I'll never forget" David George Gordon was a junior in high school in January 1967 - the month that the big blizzard hit his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Before the big snowstorm hit, the weather had been unusually warm.

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Scholastic.com | Online Activities: Weather Watch

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March 11-14, 1888

More than 120 winters have come and gone since the so-called " Great White Hurricane," but this whopper of a storm still lives in infamy. After a stretch of rainy but unseasonably mild weather, temperatures plunged and vicious winds kicked up, blanketing the East Coast in snow and creating drifts up to 50 feet high. The storm immobilized New York, Boston and other major cities, blocking roads and wiping out telephone, telegraph and rail service for several days. When the skies finally cleared, fires and flooding inflicted millions of dollars of damage. The disaster resulted in more than 400 deaths, including 200 in New York City alone. In the decade that followed, partly in response to the 1888 storm and the massive gridlock it wrought, New York and Boston broke ground on the country's first underground subway systems.

January 27-28, 1922

The Knickerbocker Storm battered the upper South and middle Atlantic United States for two days, dumping a record-breaking 28 inches of snow on Washington, D.C. But by the evening of January 28, the storm was winding down, and several hundred people ventured out to catch a showing of the silent film "Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford" at the Knickerbocker Theatre, the capital's largest and most modern movie house. During the intermission, the theater's flat roof gave way under the weight of the wet snow, and concrete, bricks and metal rained down onto the audience. One of the deadliest in Washington's history, the disaster claimed 98 lives and gave the storm its name.

February 5-7, 1978

A week after Ohio experienced its worst winter storm in history, the Northeast got its own taste of nature's wrath. On February 5, when snowflakes failed to materialize in the pre-dawn hours as meteorologists had predicted, many people chalked it up to faulty forecasting and went about their lives. Later that day, hurricane-force winds and whiteout conditions took them by surprise. The storm pummeled gridlocked highways, forcing drivers and passengers to abandon their cars or be buried along with them. Massive snowdrifts trapped families in their homes and workers in their offices. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, record snowfalls left residents without heat, water or electricity for more than a week; roughly 10,000 took refuge in shelters. Meanwhile, severe flooding damaged or destroyed homes on the Long Island Sound and Cape Cod Bay. An estimated 100 people perished in this crushing nor'easter.

March 12-15, 1993

Causing 300 deaths and $6 to $10 billion in damages, the "Storm of the Century" lived up to the hype. Those staggering numbers might have been far worse, however, were it not for significant advances in U.S. weather forecasting not long before the mighty blizzard struck. Sophisticated computer models allowed the National Weather Service to issue a severe storm warning two days in advance. For the first time, governors could declare a state of emergency before a single snowflake fell. But that didn't stop them from falling-and with a vengeance. The storm affected at least 26 U.S. states and much of eastern Canada, reaching as far south as Jacksonville, Florida. It dumped several feet of snow on regions that typically see less than an inch of powder a year, forcing officials to scrape together winter emergency plans. On the Atlantic seaboard, hurricane-force winds stirred up mammoth swells, and more than 15 homes were swept out to sea on the eastern shore of Long Island.

January 6-10, 1996

While not technically a blizzard, the "Blizzard of 1996" paralyzed an immense swath of the East Coast with three days of heavy, wet snow. It started in typical fashion, as cold air from Canada pushed down and collided with relatively warm winds from the Gulf of Mexico. On the evening of January 6, snow and sleet began hammering Washington, D.C., Baltimore and surrounding areas. Over the next few days, the storm made its way northeast, breaking records along the way. By the time it subsided, it had deposited between 17 and 30 inches of wind-driven snow on every city along the Eastern seaboard. Temperatures rose quickly in the wake of the nor'easter, and rivers and streams surged with the sudden meltdown. The 1996 storm claimed the lives of 154 people, many of whom died in car accidents, and the ensuing floods killed 33 more.

February 2010

In the United States, the new decade came in like a lion with not one, not two, but three blizzards-all within a span of 20 snowy days. Between February 1 and 6, a severe winter storm swept the country from coast to coast, piling record amounts of snow in the Mid-Atlantic states. On February 9, a second storm produced high winds and heavy snowfalls from Washington, D.C., to Boston. And on February 25, a slow-moving system crippled the Northeast yet again, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without power.

December 26-27, 2010

Many Americans who missed out on a white Christmas got their fill of snow when a blizzard carved a path of disruption down the East Coast, leaving thousands of travelers across the country stranded as airlines grounded more than 7,000 flights. Pummeling many regions from midday on December 26 through the following afternoon, the post-holiday storm featured a rare meteorological event known as thundersnow, in which thunder and lighting are accompanied by heavy snow rather than rain. New York City's transportation system took a particularly harsh beating, with passengers stranded in subway cars for up to nine hours and abandoned buses scattering the unplowed streets. Snowfall was deepest in Rahway, New Jersey, which received a whopping 32 inches.

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More than 120 winters have come and gone since the so-called " Great White Hurricane," but this whopper of a storm still lives in infamy. After a stretch of rainy but unseasonably mild weather, temperatures plunged and vicious winds kicked up, blanketing the East Coast in snow and creating drifts up to 50 feet high.