Welcome to the SnowSlang blog

Lake effect snow is a prominent feature of winter weather around the Great Lakes, but it also affects other regions, such as the Wasatch Mountains near Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

Krummholz is a “stunted forest characteristic of timberline,” according to Merriam-Webster.

A jökulhlaup is a type of flood emanating from glaciers that’s pronounced “yo-KOOL-lahp.” The word is Icelandic in origin and means “glacial run” in its native tongue.

One of the things I’ve found challenging in learning about the cryosphere is the large number of terms related to ice, such as ice sheets, ice caps, ice shelves, and icebergs, all of which begin as snow. There’s also sea ice and its various forms.

The hydrologic cycle drives weather, climate, erosion, and ecosystems, so it lies at the heart of both our modern, daily existence and the deep, geological history of our planet.

A glacier is a large, perennial mass of ice and snow that moves slowly downhill under the influence of gravity

A “snow flurry,” according to the American Meteorological Society’s Glossary of Meteorology, is a “common term for a light snow shower, lasting for only a short period of time.”

ENSO stands for El Niño-Southern Oscillation, a climate phenomenon in which changing sea surface temperatures and atmospheric pressure patterns in the equatorial Pacific Ocean can exert significant influences on weather around the world.