Some facts about snow

_Elsa_

‘Snow affects sound - Freshly fallen snow absorbs sound waves, giving everything a seemingly hushed, quieter ambience after a flurry. But if the snow then melts and refreezes, the ice can reflect sound waves making sound travel further and clearer.

Monkeys love it - Don’t think for a second we are the only mammals to enjoy a good snowball fight. Japanese macaques, also known  as ‘snow monkeys’ have been observed making and playing with balls of snow. Young macaques appear to enjoy stealing each other’s snowballs, then battling to retrieve them. Japanese macaques live further north than any other monkey in the world. They have been known to play with snowballs

Afraid of snowfall - One psychological condition that definitely exists is chionophobia, or a fear of snow, deriving from ‘chion' the Greek word for snow. While the phenomena can develop due to a childhood trauma involving snowy accident, there are more irrational variations where people develop an acute fear of becoming trapped or buried in snow if there isn’t a flake in sight or at the first sign of a flutter.’ (Source)

‘Snow isn’t actually white - That’s right. Snow is actually clear. Snowflakes are made out of ice crystals, so when light passes through, it bends and bounces off each individual crystal. The entire spectrum of light is reflected back to our eyes, and we see white snow. So there’s actually no such thing as a White Christmas, but that sounds a lot catchier than Translucent Christmas. 

Snow was almost illegal - The 1991-1992 snow season was particularly bad for Syracuse, New York. More than 162 inches of snow fell on the city. So in March of 1992, the Syracuse Common Council passed a decree “on behalf of its snow-weary citizens” that said any more snow before Christmas Eve of that year was outlawed. But Mother Nature must have missed the memo: It snowed two days later, and the following winter brought even more snow. 

But the U.S. gets its share of snow too - The continental U.S. gets an average of 105 snow-producing storms each year, but the number of blizzards has doubled in the last 20 years. Between 1960 and 1994, there were about nine blizzards per year. Since 1995, however, the average increased to 19 a year. Researchers believe this could be related to low sunspot activity.

Snowstorms are not blizzards - Besides the fact that “blizzard” just sounds a lot more threatening than “snowstorm,” the real difference between the two is in wind speeds and visibility. According to the National Weather Service, a blizzard must have large amounts of snow, winds blowing over 35 miles per hour, and visibility of less than a quarter mile.’ (Source)

Let’s continue – Tallest snowman

Start at the beginning – Let It snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!