snowfall

UK/ˈsnoʊfɔːl/US/ˈsnoʊfɔːl/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Other forms: snowfalls

Snowfall is the white flakes coming down, or how much of them settle. The event, and the measurement.

Forecasters use it precisely, since predicted snowfall in centimetres is what closes schools and roads. Britain manages remarkably badly with small amounts, which is a standing national joke and a genuine consequence of it happening rarely enough that nobody invests in equipment. The first snowfall of the year is a real moment for children. Snowdrift is what wind makes of it afterwards.

Definitions of snowfall

1nounsnowfallA fall of snow, or the amount that falls.C1
“The heaviest snowfall in a decade closed the pass.”

Where it comes from

by surface analysis, snow + fall. Cognate with Dutch sneeuwval, German Schneefall, Old Norse snjófall, snæfall (whence Danish snefald, Norwegian snøfall, and Swedish snöfall).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 11 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

snowfall in the wild

On a glacier, the accumulation zone is the area above the firn line, where snowfall accumulates and exceeds the losses from ablation, (melting, evaporation, and sublimation).
Accumulation zone
A prolonged period of snowfall began in Great Britain and Ireland on 1 February 2009.
February 2009 British Isles snowfall
Some areas experienced their largest snowfall levels in 18 years.
February 2009 British Isles snowfall
The snowstorm brought record-breaking December snowfall totals to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia.
December 2009 North American blizzard
The blizzard disrupted several regions, and in some areas the snowfall rate prevented snow plows from maintaining the roads.
December 2009 North American blizzard

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary