Snowcabulary

There's an old cliche about there being hundreds of different eskimo words for 'snow', but as we get through our second Canadian winter I'm starting to think that there may be some truth to this saying after all. Here are some snow and ice related words that I've added to my vocabulary:

Flurry - Very light, brief snowfall with little accumulation on the ground. These conditions are the most likely to produce beautiful, symmetrically-formed little snowflakes.

Blowing snow - Light, dry snow that has fallen on the ground, but is being blown around by the wind.

Snow drift - A bank of fallen snow that has been blown into a sand-dune like shape by the wind.

Rain/snow mix - A mix of rain and partially melted snow. Wet, cold and very unpleasant when it hits you in the face.

Slush - Wet snow that has partially melted on the ground. Feels like walking through a frozen coke/slurpee.

Freezing rain - Super-cooled rain that freezes on impact with the ground creating ice.

Ice storm - A storm of freezing rain that results in significant accumulated ice on surfaces.

Glaze ice - Freezing rain that has coated whatever it fell on with a layer of ice (e.g. trees, plants, cars, telegraph poles). Very pretty but can also cause a lot of damage.

Sleet / Ice pellets - Frozen rain that forms tiny solid ice particles. Closely resembles snow cone ice in texture.

Black ice - A thin coating of ice on the ground which is often invisible to the naked eye. Very easy to slip on and fall over!

Hail - Precipitation that falls as lumps of ice, called hailstones.

Snow storm - A large amount of snowfall.

Blizzard - A severe snowstorm with strong winds lasting for several hours.

Snow squall - A sudden, heavy snow fall with strong winds.

Whiteout - A snowstorm that causes severely reduced visibility. Motorists are cautioned to avoid driving in these dangerous conditions.

Lake effect snowfall - Cold air moving across relatively warm lake water, that causes the wind to pick up water vapor, which falls as snow once it reaches the shore.

Snowbelt - areas that experience lake effect snow, particularly those surrounding the great lakes in the US and Canada.

Packing snow - Slightly wet snow that is the perfect consistency for making snowballs and snowmen.

Corduroy - Freshly groomed snow on a ski-field. The small ridges in the snow resemble corduroy.

Powder - Freshly fallen snow, ideal conditions for skiing. Also known as 'pow-pow', 'pow-town' and many other cool words in snowboarder slang.