Is a “whiteout” when a blizzard obscures visibility?
True “whiteouts” occur mostly in the Arctic and Antarctic during the day when light is bounced in all directions between a uniformly overcast sky and snow or ice on the ground. Clean snow and ice reflects nearly 85% of incoming light. Falling snowflakes, suspended fog droplets, or ice particles in the air can add to this reflection. In a true whiteout, neither shadows, nearby objects, landmarks, nor clouds are discernable. All sense of direction, depth perception, and even balance may be lost. Land and sky seem to blend, and the horizon disappears into a white nothingness. Whiteouts cause confusion, tricking pilots into believing down is up and travellers into thinking far is near. Of course, we often refer to “whiteout conditions” when referring to blowing snow within snow squalls, winter storms and blizzards that can reduce visibility to near zero. In these cases, all sense of direction and depth perception can be lost as a result of blowing snow making everything appear white to the
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