A snow squall warning ( SAME code: SQW) is a bulletin issued by

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; )Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment (). is the Ministry (government department), department ...

Meteorological Service of Canada The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC; ) is a branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada, which primarily provides public meteorological information and weather forecasts and warnings of severe weather and other environmental hazards. ...

and the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to warn population of two types of snow events reducing visibility in

blowing snow Blowing snow is snow lifted from the surface by the wind, at eye level () or more, that will reduce visibility. Blowing snow can come from falling snow or snow that already accumulated on the ground but is picked up and blown about by strong winds. ...

: ''lake effect'' ''snow squalls'' and ''frontal snow squalls''.

Phenomenon

Lake effect snow squalls are generated by cold arctic air moving over unfrozen water of

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

. These will reduce visibility to less than 1 km and produce large accumulations of snow on the ground along narrow corridors in

lee Lee may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lee'' (2007 film), Tamil-language sports action film * ''Lee'' (2017 film), Kannada-language action film * ''Lee'' (2023 film), biographical drama about Lee Miller, American photojournalist * ''L ...

of the waters. Duration of these events can extend for days. Frontal snow squalls are associated with a fast moving intense cold front in winter. Visibility must be reduce to less than 500 m, wind over 40 km/h with a wind shift. Quantities of snow is not important with this type but intensity is heavy for a short period, typically 10 to 20 minutes.

Criteria

Squall warnings, reduce visibility

Canada

In Canada, snow squall warnings are issued for conditions expected to be: *Heavy snow off an open body of water producing at least 15 cm accumulations per 12 hours and reducing visibility to less than 400 meters over a limited region. *Line of convective snow showers, associated with a

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface Trough (meteorology), trough of Low-pressure area, low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropica ...

, reducing suddenly and for a short period the visibility in snow and

, causing difficult road conditions.

United States

Beginning November 1, 2018, the snow squall warning was declared operational in the United States, and the capability to issue these warnings was rolled out to all NWS offices in the US. These issuances are intended to warn drivers of potentially life-threatening road conditions. The warnings are issued in a polygon area, to make the warned area as localized as possible, similar to a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

severe thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

, or

flash flood warning A flash flood warning ( SAME code: FFW) is a severe weather warning product of the National Weather Service that is issued by national weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public that a flash flood is imminent or occurri ...

. Criteria for the

to issue a snow squall warning include: * Visibility of less than one quarter of a mile * Sub-freezing temperatures on the ground * Expected to last in one area less than 60 minutes * Cause dangerous and life-threatening conditions In the winter season of 2023-2024, the National Weather Service started using Impact-Based Warnings for snow squall warnings. Previously, all snow squall warnings would prompt a

Wireless Emergency Alert Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) and, prior to that, as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN), is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency a ...

. However, only warnings tagged 'Significant' will trigger an alert, while 'General' warnings, those without an impact tag, will not.

US Example

The following is an example of a snow squall warning issued by the USA National Weather Service in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the c ...

, on February 2, 2018.

148
WWUS51 KBGM 021452
SQWBGM

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
Snow Squall Warning
National Weather Service Binghamton NY
950 AM EST Fri Feb 2 2018

NYC007-017-023-053-077-107-109-021545-
/O.NEW.KBGM.SQ.W.0002.180202T1450Z-180202T1545Z/
Otsego NY-Broome NY-Madison NY-Cortland NY-Tioga NY-Tompkins NY-
Chenango NY-
950 AM EST Fri Feb 2 2018

The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a

* Snow Squall Warning for...
  Central Otsego County in central New York...
  Northwestern Broome County in central New York...
  Southern Madison County in central New York...
  Cortland County in central New York...
  Tioga County in central New York...
  Tompkins County in central New York...
  Chenango County in central New York...

* Until 1045 AM EST.
* At 950 AM EST, a dangerous snow squall was located along a line
  extending from near Exeter Center to near Poolville to near
  Erieville to near Cuyler to East Homer to near Groton to Enfield,
  moving southeast at 25 mph.

  HAZARD...Extremely poor visibility in heavy snow. A quick 1 to 2
           inches of snow could fall in less than an hour.

  SOURCE...Radar indicated.

  IMPACT...Dangerous life-threatening travel.

This snow squall will be near...
  Hamilton and Georgetown around 955 AM EST.
  Lebanon and Otselic around 1000 AM EST.
  Hartwick and South Lebanon around 1005 AM EST.
  Cooperstown and South Brookfield around 1010 AM EST.
  Danby, Virgil and Columbus around 1015 AM EST.
  Caroline, Harford and Smyrna around 1020 AM EST.
  Marathon, Edmeston and Plymouth around 1025 AM EST.
  North Norwich, Pittsfield and Cincinnatus around 1030 AM EST.

This includes the following highway exits...
 New York Interstate 81 between 7 and 12.
 Interstate 86/Route 17 between 63 and 65.
 Interstate 88 between 15 and 18.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Reduce your speed and turn on headlights! During snow squalls, the
visibility may suddenly drop to near zero in whiteout conditions.

&&

LAT...LON 4252 7472 4251 7484 4248 7496 4245 7498
      4245 7522 4238 7549 4228 7565 4200 7631
      4220 7654 4228 7654 4229 7662 4236 7669
      4243 7669 4266 7614 4276 7599 4283 7572
      4283 7545 4275 7499 4255 7469
TIME...MOT...LOC 1450Z 315DEG 20KT 4275 7507 4282 7543 4281 7570 4275
7597 4265 7612 4256 7638 4244 7664

$$

References

External links

Meteorological Service of Canada

National Weather Service
{{SevWea nav Weather warnings and advisories