If you are not from somewhere with snow, ice, and crazy cold temperatures, you might not know the right terms. For example, the word “snow” does not always cover enough. The type of snow is just as important.

Do note, these are all terms that people use here. People in other places may use different terms.

Snow Terms:

• Blizzard: A term for a snow storm with extremely high winds. Used like: “It’s blizzarding out.”
• Whiteout: This is used when there is so much snow falling or snow drifting that you can’t see in front of you. Like with fog, this is easy to get lost in. Used like: “It’s a whiteout outside” or “driving in whiteout conditions.”
• Flurry: A flurry is a varried snowfall. Used like: Its just a light flurry outside.
• Powdery/Dry Snow: A drier snow. It’s not as sticky and not great for snowballs. Used like: “the mountain got some fresh powder. Lets go skiing.”
• Wet Snow: AKA snowball snow. The opposite of above. Bad for skiing, great for snowballs.
• Blowing Snow: Even if it is not snowing out, high wind conditions can cause white-out conditions by picking up the snow already on the ground.
• Crust: The top part of the snow that crunches underfoot. Somtimes, it is thick enough to walk on. Other times, it is what will trip you when you try to walk.
• Slury/Slush: Partly melted snow. Often seen as a brown buildup on roads.
• Sleet: Frozen rain, often mixed in with rain or snow.
• Chinook/Snow Eater: This one is specific to my area. When warm winds come over the mountains, we get chinooks. This can cause a drastic change in temperature that can sometimes raise it by 20 degrees and cause mass snow melting. If you are ever unsure if it is a chinook, look for the chinook arch, which is an arch of clouds. For an extra fact, these are also a common cause of headaches and achy limbs, so you either love chinooks, or hate them.
• Graupel. Like hail, but smaller. Imagine snowflakes that have passed through wet clouds and frozen into tiny pellets.
• Snow Drift: Caused by the wind blowing snow into piles. Used like: “The snow drift was so deep I had to dig my vehicle out.”
• Ripples: Simular to snow drifts, the wind can cause the surface of snow to look rippled like waves.
• Snow bridge. Pretty much what it sounds like. Step on the wrong one of these, and you can fall a long ways.
• Snowstorm: A catch-all term for any type of falling snow, but most people will look at you funny if you use it for a light snow.
• Quinzhee: You all probably call it a snow cave unless you don’t live here. Basically, you build up a pile of snow and pack it down as you do so. Once done, you dig out the inside and use it as a shelter. This is not the same as an igloo, which is made with ice bricks.
• Fluffy snow. Yes, I know there is likely a scientific term for this, but this is what we call those giant flusters of flakes that slowly float down.
• Dusting: a term for when it snows, but does not leave much behind. Used like: There is just a light dusting of snow outside.
• Snow Rollers: When the wind picks up snow and forms snowballs
• Thundersnow: A snowstorm with thunder(rare).
• Snowbow: A rainbow in snow (rare)
• Snowed-In: You don’t really hear about this much here, but (espeically in places that don’t usually get snow) this is when you get so much snow, people can’t leave.
• Snow Day: This is when it is deemed too unsafe for kids to go to school. It normally occurs during blizzards, and sometimes even then it is just for bus students (because they have to wait outside for the bus).
• Snow Dump: The piles of ice and snow collected by snow plows. They are normally dirty, but kids still sometimes use them (at extreme danger) to tobogan down, or even build forts into.

Others:

• Hoar Frost: When water vapors freeze on objects (like trees) covering them in frost.
• Diamond Dust: Parcipitation freezing in the air and making the air seem to sparkle.
• Pickle: The mix of salt and gravol put onto ice. Salt will only melt ice if it above around -20c, so the gravol is to help add traction.
• Black Ice: This one is named because it is actually transparent ice that can’t be seen on the road until you are pretty much on it. Used like: “I hit black ice and totalled my car.”
• Frost Bite: a term for when the cold starts causing damage to the skin. Like with burns, there are various levels of a frostbite (first degree, second degree, third degree).
• Frost Nip: The stage before frost bite skin damage.
• Freezing Rain: Rain that falls then freezes, covering the area in ice.
• Windchill. There is the actually temperature, then the windchill temperature. The windchill temperature is an (often debated) aproximation of how the temperature feels with the added wind. Used Like: “With windchill, it is -30c outside.”
• Icicle. Water that gradually freezes into points that hang off things like rooves. They can be dangerous if they are too big or fall from too high onto people, but its also common to see kids using the big ones to sword fight with, or the smaller ones to eat(not recomended due to bird droppings, but kids will be kids).
• Toboggan. I have been informed that some people in the southern states call what you put on your head to keep your head warm a “taboggan.” No, dear, sweet, warm climate people. A Toboggan is a sled, specifically a term often used for wooden sleds or traditional sleds used by some indigenous cultures. Going “toboganing” or “sledding” are used interchagably.
• Sledding: See above. It is just a term for sliding down a hill on something (you may sometimes see teens “couch sledding” which is when you push a couch down a hill -sometimes on skis and sometimes not – and hope not to die on it).
• Toque. What you put on the top of your head to keep it warm. Sometimes also called a beanie.
• Sleigh: what a horse pulls. It is like a wagon or carriage, but on skis.

There are way more than this, but these are the ones that I hear most on a regular basis. I hope this helps!

My News:

To Steal From a King is doing alright! I admit that I did not have much hope for it — thanks to my lack of faith in my own writing skills — but it is doing better than expected!

No, I do not have hoards of fans eagerly waiting for the next chapter. No one is praising my talents, or anything like that.

I am, however, getting noticed a little. For example, on Wattpad, my story is currently ranked 109 out of 2.9k under the tag “#actionpacked,” and 218 out of 4.9k under the tag “#thief.” Yes, I know those are based off of views alone, but people are noticing.

Being completely honest, even with those rankings, I do only gain around 2 new followers a week, but hey, it’s a start!

Thank you to everyone who is reading it!

My Writing Progress

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Note: I am currently working on a side project for practice, but hope to get back to this story very soon.

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