How Do You Know About Snow?!!

Every morning this week I've woken up to a thin veil of snow covering everything outside my windows. I love when winter is just beginning and you can smell that unique crispness in the air that means that a good snowstorm is eminent.

It always puts me in a cozy, curl-up-by-the-fire sort of mood. And what does one do whilst curled up by the fireplace? In my opinion, there is nothing better than settling in with a good blog article! That's just me though.

Snow, as most everyone knows, forms when water droplets inside of a cloud freeze and then fall to earth. It is interesting however, exactly what the conditions must be for snow to form.

Snow must begin as a tiny nucleus and then form a crystal before it can take on the familiar flake shape. Inside the cloud, a few water molecules must become woven together and form a shape similar to a lattice. Then a water droplet must come into contact with this lattice and freeze around it. This forms a nucleus.

Dust, volcanic ash, or even sea salt particles can act as nuclei for an ice crystal as well. These nuclei allow condensation to take place. Without something to cause condensation to begin, water vapor in the atmosphere can remain unfrozen down to -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Assuming that the temperature is 31 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, the water vapor begins to freeze into ice crystals and expand. As the crystals grow, parts of them break off and act as nuclei for other snowflakes to form. The crystals begin to fall through the air as they gain mass. As they fall through the air they collide with and stick to thousands of other crystals. This process forms the snowflakes that we all recognize.

The most beautiful snowflakes are those that are very wide, but very thin as well. Providing that the flake is large enough for the detail to be seen with the naked eye, this allows us to see one intricate layer of crystals all linked together.

The largest snowflakes on record were fifteen inches across and fell in Keogh, Montana in 1887.

Probably your whole life you have heard that every single snowflake is unique and there is not another like it. This is only partly true.  It is very possible that could spend your whole life searching for two identical snowflakes and never find them. But it is a statistical impossibility for each flake to have a unique shape and composition. Nature likes symmetry and patterns too much to be so original.

Another bit of trivia that is passed around is that the Innu eskimos have many words in their language for snow. Again this is partially true. The two most commonly spoken languages of these people are Innuit and Inuktitut. In these languages, they simplify the use of several adjectives into one word. For example, snow that drifts into a wave like pattern could be described with one word in Innuit. So, while they only have one word that translates literally to "snow," they do have many words that describe different conditions of snow.

One of my favorite natural phenomena is the peaceful quiet that seems to steal over everything after a fresh snowfall. This is occurs because air trapped between the crystals tends to trap sound waves and dampen vibrations. Once snow has been blown around by the wind or melted and packed down, it loses its ability to muffle sound.

Interestingly enough, if snow becomes hard enough, it can also enhance acoustics of a landscape. The snow in Antarctica is so hard and flat that researchers have reported the ability to hear human voices speaking at a normal volume from distances of up to a mile away.

Fresh snow can reflect more than 90% of ultraviolet light. This can cause a condition called Ultraviolet Keratitis. This is more commonly referred to as snow blindness. It is a painful condition that results from overexposure of the cornea to UV light. Essentially it's a sunburn inside your eyes. Snow blindness most commonly occurs in polar regions or at very high altitudes.

In addition to snow blindness, intense light reflections from the snow have caused a handful of documented cases of Poblokto. A syndrome also called Arctic Hysteria. Little is known about the cause of the syndrome other than it occurs when snow reflections are especially bright. The syndrome is seen almost exclusively in native societies that live close to the Arctic Circle. Symptoms can include hysteria, depression, echolalia (senseless repetition of words,) and insensitivity to cold. Sufferers are known to be so insensitive to the cold that they often strip off their clothing and run naked through the snow.

Everyone knows better than to eat yellow snow. Well, most everyone that is. But there are plenty of would be explorers who have never been warned against eating the pink snow. The color comes from a species of pigmented algae that grows in the ice. It is often called watermelon snow as it resembles the fruit and even gives off the same scent. Unfortunately, eating watermelon snow can cause illness due to the bacteria that feeds off the algae.

It is intriguing how much awe snow seems to inspire in us as humans. For most people, the fascination and curiosity caused by the different elements fades as we grow older. But snow never quite seems to lose its magical properties.

It is difficult not to feel a childlike sense of excitement as you watch the first snowfall. And a fresh white blanket of snow never ceases to steal our breath away with its beauty.