The recent eight inches of snow in Middle Tennessee (Nashville primarily) and the usual stoppage of inclement weather from the North by the Cumberland Plateau at Monteagle raised the question of the origin of the term “blizzard.”
Actually, the term was not used to mean a snowstorm until around 1870.
However, the word had been used for about 50 years without any particular meaning.
A creative newspaper editor in town needed a word to describe a particularly fierce spring storm.
The word had previously been used to describe a vicious physical attack either with fists or guns.
Due to severity of the weather he decided to apply “blizzard” to his description of the storm in his weather report!
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Jerry Summers
(If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com)