What the heck is a snow squall?

It's like a little bit of snow, right?

WRONG!

I completely admit, I had absolutely no idea what a snow squall really was until we got blasted with one last night. I always assumed that these things were the colder versions of rain showers. Rain showers vs. snow squalls, right?

Yeah, not so much.

After Keith Carson tweeted this warning (yes, there were actual warnings for these last night), I decided to look them up and see what everyone was freaking out about. I wanted to know why the phrase "buckle up" was just being thrown around!

According to the National Weather Service, a snow squall is "...a sudden moderately heavy snow fall with blowing snow and strong, gusty surface winds. It is often referred to as a whiteout and is similar to a blizzard but is localized in time or in location and snow accumulations may or may not be significant."

So it turns out that snow squalls are definitely NOT like rain showers, and they can cause total whiteout conditions on the roads. For about an hour last night, it was super dangerous to drive, and snow actually accumulated at our house in Windham.

After I already cleaned the driveway.

UGH!

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