No surface irregularities of the snow are visible, but a dark object may be clearly seen. Whiteout has been defined as: "A condition of diffuse light when no shadows are cast, due to a continuous white cloud layer appearing to merge with the white snow surface.
The horizon disappears from view while the sky and landscape appear featureless, leaving no points of visual reference by which to navigate there is absence of shadows because the light arrives in equal measure from all possible directions.
It could be also applied when visibility and contours are greatly reduced by sand. That's why it's so good to be able to follow someone like a ski instructor, who can do the mountain blindfold.Whiteout, white-out, or milky weather is a weather condition in which the contours and landmarks in a snow-covered zone become almost indistinguishable. AFter clambering back up, I made her go in front for a bit. In very poor visibility it helps to have someone to follow - but only if they are not going to lead you over a cliff! My friend was following me in a situation like that, and fortunately heard me shriek as I disappeared off the edge of the track, and stopped. Trees can help a lot, but in the sort of extreme white out that some posts above describe, trees are no use, because you can't see them until you bump into them! Skiing with other people is very difficult, too, because unless you're holding hands you lose sight of each other. What is described there, not knowing which way is what, sounds like bad visibility, which is very disorientating and saps confidence. If it's flat light, it's just as flat between the trees, or next door to the cafe or lift, as anywhere else - you can't see any detail on the surface of the snow, though other features are OK.
That doesn't sound like what I call a "flat light" situation. Had I been below the treeline, it wouldn't have been an issue AT ALL. But it felt a lot worse than in a blizzard. It may only technically be a "flat light" situation. The best person to have around in such a situation would definitely be a blind skier, because they would have become skilled in using other means of navigating, and would not be paralysed with nerves like most of us. It is perfectly possible to have "flat light" without a "whiteout" but to talk of having a "whiteout" without "flatlight" is meaningless because the snow looks the same as the sky, and the sky looks the same as the mountain, and there are no points of reference. There are clearly defined parameters for different kinds of poor visibility in marine terms - can't remember off the top of my head what they are, though. snojito's definitions are a good start, though you need to define visibility. Snowheads could write a much better wikipedia entry than that. It is often the arrival of a breeze which sees off the fog, in fact. It's not necessarily associated with blizzards - a blizzard has wind, and generally in those very foggy conditions there isn't any wind. In fact, that's probably the most frequent cause of poor visibility. For example, the worst "whiteouts" I've been in, with almost zero visibility, have not been associated with any snowfall at all - just extremely thick fog. Anyway, snowHeads really is MUCH better when you're logged in - not least because you get to post your own messages complaining about things that annoy you like perhaps this banner which, incidentally, disappears when you log in :-)ĭavid Murdoch, useful quote, but Wikipedia is just written by someone who felt like writing it. We don't share your email address with anyone and we never send out any of those cheesy 'message from our partners' emails either. It's rather good and not made up by tourist offices (or people that love the tourist office and want to marry it either).
#WHITE OUT SNOW STORM FREE#
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