Blowing snow is snow lifted from the surface by the wind, at a height of 8 feet (2 metres) or more, that will reduce visibility. Blowing snow can come from falling snow or snow that already accumulated on the ground but is picked up and blown about by strong winds. It is one of the classic requirements for a blizzard. Its METAR code is BLSN. If the snow remains below 8 feet (2 m), it will be called Drifting snow (METAR code DRSN). The snow which is being blown about may deposit as snowdrifts.
Read more about Blowing Snow: Formation
Famous quotes containing the words blowing and/or snow:
“The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare,
For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air;
Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood;
But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood
Is Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)