After all, if you’ve lived in the midwest, you know how terrible they can be-- several feet of snow (no communist, atheistic, wimpy metric measurements here, no sir!) whiteout conditions, power outages, main arteries paralyzed, secondary roads completely shut down, frigid temperatures, and yes, death and destruction.
So why not? “Blizzard Elizabeth” doesn’t roll off the tongue like my tropical friends, but hey. I’m willing to suggestions.
They are named. The Blizzard of '04 the blizzard of '96 etc.
Because meteorologists don’t want to.
Because blizzards aren’t as predictable as hurricanes and tropical storms (witness the random lake effect storms that dump feet of snow on Buffalo and Syracuse); they typically cover a smaller geographic area than a hurricane; and you can have several blizzards scattered throughout the country at any given time, as opposed to only one hurricane (what blizzard gets what name?).
Hurricane naming didn’t become formalized until after WWII. Prior to that it was just sort of an inside thing with meteorologists.
I’m not a meteorologist, but I watch the Weather Channel a lot and hurricanes (and their other tropical cyclonic brethren) are phenomena that form at particular times of the year and relatively rare events.
Big winter storms happen every year. The difference is just their severity. And they aren’t discrete weather events like hurricanes.
But I’m engaging in a lot of WAGs.
Technically, those are not blizzards. A lot of snow does not a blizzard make. In addition to snow, you must have winds of a certain velocity and you must have temperatures that fall at least 20 degrees in a certain period. I forget the exact details, but it’s more than snow. It’s also wind and falling temperatures. Without those, it’s just a snowstorm. It’s rare to have several blizzards throughout the country at the same time.
According to the glossary at the Weather Channel’s website, a blizzard is
Not that I’ve ever been in one, but it sounds pretty localized.
I wouldn’t say that. You can track a blizzard much like a hurricane - we tend to get ours from Alberta or the NWT, and pass them on to Manitoba or Minnesota (you’re welcome 
). The combination of low temperatures, high winds and thick snow usually requires a major weather system to produce them, and can shut down a good chunk of a province at a time.
Am I the only imbecile to pass over this thread title twice before deciding to read it because I thought it was about the Dairy Queen ice cream treat called a “Blizzard”?
Only one in the room and I’m still embarrassed at my ignorant assumption,
Abby
Back when they named hurricanes after women only, there was a movement to name blizzards after men. The rational was: “You never know how long they’ll last or how many inches you’ll get”. 
Here in CT, there is a TV station that does name winter storms. Any storm big enough to cause headaches gets tagged. Last year (I think) we had Blizzard Josh.
Although in most cases a blizzard is part of a generalized storm, it need not even be snowing to have a blizzard. In that event, it could be very localized. In addition, why give a name to a meteorological phenomenon which is not even a storm?
Then you may argue why not give names to snowstorms? Well, snowstorms are very frequent and common. What parameters will be used so that a snowstorm can merit a name? Then why stop at snowstorms and give names to all storms, whether tropical or non-tropical?
Hurricanes are not the only storms that get names. All tropical storms, once they reach depression-force winds (39 mph)get a name, and before that they get a number (TS #1). The names given are in a language that at least one of the nations in the West Indies uses: English, French, Spanish, Portugese, and I think even Dutch. That’s because most of the storms go thru that area.
Read all about hurricane names (and their relations) at
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.html
and
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/reason.html
My name is retired!
Eh…depression force winds, if I remember right are the equal or less than 39 mph. Tropical storm winds are those about 40-75 mph. Keep in mind a tropical storm may have either gusts less than 39mph or more than 75 mph. The initial numbers are for sustained winds. Only depressions have numbers, and they are called TD, not TS. Tropical storms have names, alternating a female(or male) with a male(or female) name.
Before the weather people named the storms with women names, locals named the storm(hurricane) with the name of the saint whose day it was when the storm hit the place. Betsy is also known as Santa Clara. There are also San Felipe and San Ciriaco. Those are the ones I remember off-hand.
I wondered how long it would take before someone found that I transposed depression and storm. In order to be a “storm,” a system must have sustained winds of at least 39 mph for at least one minute. BTW, it’s 74 mph, not 75 mph. Sustained winds of 74 mph is a hurricane, but since wind velocities are given in units of five, it really doesn’t make any difference.
Well, first I do think that it has a lot to do with blizzards simply not covering as large of an area as hurricanes, or lasting as long.
However, and this is more of a WAG, I think this question has a lot to do with where you’re located.
Where I am, it would be pointless to name blizzards. We have a lot of blizzards during winter (which lasts quite a long time, relative to most places). So the blizzards don’t really have as much of an individual feel. We might have a few blizzards in a couple of weeks. So there’s so many that it’s not really an “event” when one happens. No need to name each one…it’s just something that happens.
However, if you’re in an area where there’s maybe one big blizzard a year, then it might seem stranger that people don’t name blizzards.