Other forms: snowstorms
A snowstorm is a storm in which a great deal of snow falls. Caught in a snowstorm.
Wind is what makes it a storm rather than a snowfall, since it is the drifting that closes roads. A snowstorm can drop the visibility to a few metres, which is what makes it dangerous.
1nounsnowstormA storm in which a great deal of snow falls.
“The snowstorm closed every road out of the valley for two days.”
snowstorm is a storm.
Snow plus storm, with the same compound in Scots and across the Germanic languages.
From earlier snow-storm, snow storm, equivalent to snow + storm. Compare Scots snawstorm (“snowstorm”), stq Sneestoarm (“snowstorm”), West Frisian sniestoarm (“snowstorm”), Dutch sneeuwstorm (“snowstorm”), German Low German Sneestorm (“snowstorm”), German Schneesturm (“snowstorm”), Danish snestorm (“snowstorm”), Swedish snöstorm (“snowstorm”), Icelandic snjóstormur (“snowstorm”). Compare also Middle English storm of snow (“snowstorm”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA