• Winds of 35 miles per hour or more
• Temperatures of 20 degrees or less
• You can't see more than 1/4 mile away for at least 3 hours because of falling or blowing snow

Places with few trees or tall buildings get more blizzards because there is nothing to reduce the wind and blowing snow. The Dakotas and parts of Minnesota are examples of this. 

Blizzards produce strong winds which create huge ocean waves. When the high waves from the storm coincide with high tide, and even worse, around the time of either a full moon or a new moon, damage along the coastline can be devastating. 

Blizzards can be very dangerous. Prolonged exposure can lead to frostbite or life-threatening hypothermia, when a person's body gets too cold. Wind and gusts that accompany a blizzard can knock down trees and power lines. 

Heavy snow can collapse roofs. Extreme cold following blizzards can burst pipes in homes without insulation or heat and jam rivers with ice, causing floods. 

Blizzards are most dangerous for males over 40, who are at risk of heart attack while shoveling snow.

• It's never too cold to snow. Snow can occur at any time when the temperature is near or below freezing.
• Snowflakes are usually less than half an inch across, but they can be as large as 2 inches across. In 1971 a snowflake measuring 8 inches by 12 inches was found in Siberia.
• The colder it is outside, the smaller the snowflakes that fall.
• Snow is still very difficult to predict and is surprisingly hard to measure once it has fallen.
• Snow is white because it reflects white sunlight.
• Clean snow is edible, but pollution in the air makes it unheathy.
• Rochester, New York averages 94 inches of snow annually and is the snowiest large city in the United States. Buffalo, New York, is a close runner-up in terms of U.S. large cities with the most snow. A 39-inch snowfall in 24 hours in early December 1995 cost the city nearly $5 million for snow removal.
• Almost 187 inches of snow fell in seven days on Thompson Pass, Alaska in February, 1953.
• Each year an average of 105 snowstorms affect the continental United States. A typical storm will produce snow for two to five days.
• Practically every location in the United States has seen snowfall. Even most portions of southern Florida have seen a few snow flurries.
• In the western United States, mountain snow pack contributes up to 75 percent of all fresh water.
• Nationwide, the average snowfall amount per day when snow falls is about two inches.