Reading Comprehension – Earth Science
Blizzards Worksheets
A reading lesson on blizzards – how they form, why the South rarely sees snow, what happens during a blizzard warning, snowdrifts and visibility, and the role of meteorologists. Comprehension questions follow the reading.
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Grade Level
Grades 4-7
Pages
Reading + Questions
Subject
Reading / Earth Science
Format
Printable PDF
What This Lesson Teaches
Students read a multi-page passage about blizzards. The lesson opens with a regional comparison – the southern U.S. rarely gets snow because temperatures stay too warm; the northern U.S. gets winter snow regularly – then defines a blizzard as a winter storm with massive snowfall and high winds.
Additional sections cover the dangers: snowdrifts that can trap cars and people, near-zero visibility from blowing snow, downed power lines, and the cold itself. The lesson introduces meteorologists as weather scientists who study patterns and predict snowfall, and explains why proper cold-weather clothing is essential.
What Students Practice
- Reading informational text across multiple sections
- Earth-science vocabulary – blizzard, blizzard warning, snowdrift, meteorologist, average snowfall
- Comparing regions – why the South gets little snow, why the North gets a lot
- Cause-and-effect reading – high winds + heavy snow = low visibility + dangerous travel
- Practical reasoning – what to wear during cold weather, why people are advised to stay indoors
- Comprehension questions that require returning to the passage to find specific facts
How Teachers Use This Worksheet
This rounds out the natural-disasters cluster. Because blizzards are highly regional, the lesson works particularly well as a regional-comparison reading or a winter current-events anchor.
- Use as a Day 5 / week 2 reading in a natural-disasters mini-unit
- Pair with a U.S. map – have students mark snow-belt regions (Great Lakes, Northeast, Mountain West) versus low-snow areas (Gulf Coast, desert Southwest)
- Use the meteorologist section to introduce careers in atmospheric science
- Cross-reference winter break experience: ask students to recall the worst snowstorm they remember and compare to the lesson
- Pair with a snowfall-graphing activity if local data is available
- Use the comprehension questions as written exit-ticket work
Common Student Mistakes to Watch For
- Treating any snowstorm as a blizzard – blizzards specifically combine massive snowfall AND strong winds
- Underestimating the wind – the wind, not the cold alone, is what makes blizzards so dangerous
- Missing why the South gets little snow – it is temperature, not precipitation; the South has plenty of rain
- Forgetting about snowdrifts – the wind piles snow into drifts deep enough to trap a car
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