Intro:
Blizzards are definitely a force to be reckoned with. This horrid force of nature kills many people in a year, but what drives these mad forces? Cold air, water, wind, and dust; these four elements drive any full fledged blizzard. These four elements create the deaths, damage and blockage only a blizzard can make. It seems impossible that these four harmless elements can kill all the people they kill, right? I'll answer that later. I hope you already realize the force of dust and/ or wind, cold, and water. If you do, then good for you! If not, I’ll tell you now. Long story short, these elements start with a group of harmless dots in the sky, but develop into deadly storm clouds, when it's around winter time. When it's not around that time, it turns into a thunderstorm, but that's due to the lack of cold air.
How the Forces Start:
But first, here's how these forces combine. The dust starts high in the atmosphere. The saturated warm air rises up. Usually the air is stopped before it reaches dust, but sometimes air is not stable.
That's exactly what a blizzard wants to happen. It relies on warm air blown to its birthplace, high up in Alaska or certain parts of Canada. The air carries water vapor to the dust, where it becomes a cloud. Most of the time, it fades away, but sometimes it joins other small clouds and becomes a big cloud.
Sometimes seems to happen amazingly often. The big cloud starts to collect another layer of small clouds, increasing it's density until it starts to rain. Since Canada doesn't get much heat, the rain turns into snow. When it gets blown to America, it gets extra potency with wind. The storm is finally a blizzard (but remember, this is in winter, so you'll wind up with a thunderstorm unless it's below freezing).
The blizzard causes death and destruction because of wind and water, and finalized with cold air.
Your Answer:
A blizzard, before it's a blizzard, can't hurt anything, but, if allowed to mix, the 4 elements create chaos. These elements start as no threat, but they can team up to destroy lives, and here's how.
The Part The Elements Play:
The water is what really hurts the most. It is the tangible force that seals the victim’s fate. The cold air freezes the water falling down, and the wind blows it at whatever's there, usually ground.
The wind plays a large part as well. It blows the now frozen snow at over 35 miles an hour, and the barrage of snow reduces visibility to under a fourth of a mile. Cold air further freezes the snow into ice.
Dust is what makes all clouds, but it isn't really necessary. Cold air cools the droplets into freezing rain, sleet and finally, snow. The snow droplets collect vapor until it becomes too heavy and falls.
Cold air is a big part of the blizzards wrath. The cold air helps all the way, freezing the snow, the ice, and the people.
Hypothermia: THE END?:
The two partners, wind and cold combine to create the deadly hypothermia. Hypothermia occurs when the internal body temperature starts to fall. If it drops below 80 degrees, the outlook is grim for the ill person.
Treatment:
Don't dip their flesh into hot water, or the frozen water will melt before the vein has time to heal, and they'll slowly bleed to death. Instead, dip the cold flesh into cold water (unless there's ice in it, it will be warmer than the ice). When SOME ice has melted, you can add a bit of warm water, and if you see a tint of red in the pool, call a doctor.