Fascinating Facts About Snow

I dislike winter. I don't like the cold. I like snow only when it falls in small amounts. And, I hate the ice. This winter, since we've had an abundant amount of snow already, I began seriously thinking about the flaky, cold stuff. Read these fascinating facts about snow. They may just change the way you look at it!

What Color Is Snow Really?
A snowflake is made up of translucent ice crystals that are joined together. Contrary to what our eyes see, snow isn't white, it's actually clear. When the sunlight shines on snow, the air and the ice crystals disperse the light. The light quickly comes back out. What we see is the color of the sunlight- white.

Snow Comes In Edible Colors
You've undoubtedly heard the warning, "Don't eat the yellow snow!" While that's good advice to heed around here, yellow, orange, green, purple and red snow is seen on glaciers in Antarctica. The colors are caused by algae. Different colors actually have different flavors. The red snow, for example, tastes like watermelon.

How Big Is A Snowflake?
Obviously the size of a snowflake depends on how many ice crystals it contains. It's estimated that two to two hundred ice crystals join together to make up a single snowflake.

On the average, snowflakes measure less than a half-inch in diameter. A fascinating fact about snow is, the largest snowflake on record was a whopping fifteen inches in diameter! According to the Guinness World Records, that flake fell in Keogh, Montana in January of 1887.

Is Snow Clean Enough to Eat?
According to thinkquest.org, you shouldn't eat snow because it cleans the "pollution and dirt" out of the air as it's falling. Eat snow, and you could be eating all kinds of impurities. The web site describes a simple experiment you can use to find out how clean the snow in your vicinity is.

However, the article "Snow Ice Cream OK to Eat" on the KSPR ABC web site disagrees. A study done by Brigham Young University shows that "fresh" snow that "has just fallen through the air and landed on the ground is not going to be dangerous or unhealthy". The article even gives two easy recipes for Snow Ice Cream.

Where Does the Most Snow Fall in the US?
It's not surprising that the top honor usually goes to Valdez, Alaska. This northern town has an average snowfall of 326 inches per year. However, Mount Baker in Washington state had 1,140 inches fall on it in 1998. A fascinating fact about snow is, that 63 inches of the stuff fell on Georgetown, Colorado in just 24 hours! That happened in 1913.

Are You Afraid of Snow?
If you have an extreme, persistent fear or hatred of snow, then you may be suffering from chionophobia. ("Chiono" means "snow" in Greek.) On the other hand, if you are crazy about snow, you may have chionomania.

Snow Can Kill... and Save Your Life Too!
Snow-related deaths reach the hundreds every year in the United States. Traffic accidents, avalanches, shoveling snow and over-exposure are common causes.

Another fascinating fact about snow is, over-exposure to it can cause hypothermia which can result in death. However, snow can also save your life if you're stranded out in it. Since snow is made up of about 90 - 95 percent air, it has very good thermal properties. So, if you dig a cave in the snow, it will help protect you from the wind and the colder air outside. The insulating snow will also help trap your body heat to help keep you warm.

Resources
http://library.thinkquest.org/3876/snowfacts.html
http://nsidc.org/snow/facts.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/4434773/Snow-Britain-10-facts-about-snow.html
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/a/snow-facts-and-trivia-get-in-the-snow
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/02/snow-the-top-10-facts-115875-21092007/
http://library.thinkquest.org/3876/eat.html