In article ,
George Booth writes:
As I recall the media began using 'blizzard' in 1962/3
snip

It seems to go back a lot further than that in the UK, though perhaps it
went out of fashion for a time. According to Clive Carter in "The
Blizzard of '91", writing about the great West Country snowstorm of
March 1891: "In 1891 'blizzard' itself was a new term, an Americanism
which came into sudden and popular usage that week, having first arrived
in England only a month before when a severe snowstorm was reported in
Nebraska."

I do recall on January 2, 1964, that after the 9:00 BBC News the map
showing the weather forecast chart for the next day had the one word
"Blizzards" for the south and Midlands, which was so remarkable that it
stuck in my mind. (Even that winter did not always deliver. Though the
Midlands I believe got the promised blizzards, after an inch or so of
snow in the night we had drizzle with a temperature of 1C. By
mid-afternoon the drizzle had stopped and we were back below freezing. I
shouldn't really complain as we already had close to 18" of snow on the
ground from earlier falls.)
--
John Hall
"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people
from coughing."
Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-83)