Most Common Winter Weather Alerts explained | Part 1

The Winter can be a confusing time for severe weather.

Once winter arrives, we're overwhelmed with winter weather advisories, watches and warnings for winter storms, lake effect snow, ice storms, heavy snow, blowing snow, blizzards, and something called freezing spray.

Let's make this a little less confusing by looking at the most common winter alerts.

I'm Storm Shield meteorologist Jason Meyers.

We'll begin with the all encompassing, most common "Winter Weather Advisory."

The National Weather Service will issue these anywhere between 12 and 36 hours before a weather system is going to bring any snow, freezing rain, sleet, or any combination of all three, but it's not enough to meet warning criteria.

Look for these when winter weather will cause a minor inconvenience.

"Winter Storm Watches and Warnings" - If a winter storm is set to bring heavy snow or ice, a watch will be issued between one and three days ahead of time. If it looks like the winter storm will hit sooner rather than later, a warning will be issued between 12 and 36 hours ahead of time.

Criteria for winter storms varies from place to place because every location is differently equipped to handle snow and ice. For instance, no one in Buffalo, New York, one of the snowiest places in the U.S. would bat an eye for an inch of snow, but that same amount of snow in Atlanta would shut the city down.

Blizzard watches and warnings, believe it or not, have nothing to do with the amount of snow. These are issued when winds are expected to be blowing at least 35 mph and falling or blowing snow reduces visibility to a quarter mile or less. And both of those conditions have to last for at least 3 hours - otherwise, it's just a snow storm.

Freezing rain advisories get issued when freezing rain could cause significant travel problems.

Ice Storm watches and warnings usually indicate the incoming storm is much more severe with the potential to cause travel problems, power outages, and downed trees.

These are what you're most likely to see this winter.

Now, check out the next video for more on the lesser known winter alerts.

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