A Winter Storm Warning (SAME code: WSW) is a statement made by the National Weather Service of the United States which means a winter storm is occurring or is about to occur in the area, usually within 36 hours. Generally, a Winter Storm Warning is issued if at least 4 inches (10 cm) to 7 inches (18 cm) or more of snow or 3 inches (7.6 cm) or more of snow with a large accumulation of ice is forecast. In the Southern United States, where severe winter weather is much less common and any snow is a more significant event, warning criteria are lower, as low as 2 inches (5.1 cm) in the southernmost areas. A warning can also be issued during high impact events of lesser amounts, usually early or very late in the season when trees have leaves and damage can result.
Usually, a large accumulation of ice alone with no snow will result in an Ice Storm Warning, or in the case of light freezing rain, a Winter Weather Advisory, a Freezing Rain Advisory, or Drizzle Advisory.
A similar warning is issued by Environment Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada from their offices.
Prior to the 2008-09 winter storm season, there was the Heavy Snow Warning, specific for when only a heavy amount of snow was expected in the warned area. The Winter Storm Warning for Heavy Snow has since replaced it.
Read more about Winter Storm Warning: Types
Famous quotes containing the words winter, storm and/or warning:
“These were such houses as the lumberers of Maine spend the winter in, in the wilderness ... the camps and the hovels for the cattle, hardly distinguishable, except that the latter had no chimney.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Thee for my recitative,
Thee in the driving storm even as now, the snow, the winter-day
declining,
Thee in thy panoply, thy measur’d dual throbbing and thy beat
convulsive,
Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“What I am now warning the People of is, That the News-Papers of this Island are as pernicious to weak Heads in England as ever Books of Chivalry to Spain; and therefore shall do all that in me lies, with the utmost Care and Vigilance imaginable, to prevent these growing Evils.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)