As handling snow is our job, we know everything about those little flakes. And of course, we love to share our knowledge with you. Did you know all these facts?
As white as snow.. or not?
White Christmas, snow-white. That isn’t true. Snow is not white but transparent. How come we see it as white? Snow is made of ice crystals. When the light passes through the crystals, the prisms break the light in multiple colors. They reflect and absorb the light and as a result our eyes see them as white.
Don’t eat the.. red snow
Red snow? Yes red snow exist. The red color is caused by a pigment algae. It mostly appears in mountains during seasons when there is little sunlight and when the temperature is below freezing points. Even though it looks wonderful, you shouldn’t eat the snow. Your intestines don’t like the algae’s and it will give you diarrhea.
Six sides on every snowflake
Snow is made of ice crystals. These crystals always have six sides. Snowflakes are groups of perfectly symmetrical crystals instead of flakes that look like cottonwool.
The largest snowflake
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest snowflake has been 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. It fell down during a snowstorm in January 1887 at Fort Keogh in Montana.
As silence as snow
Did you ever walk downtown New York city after a big snowstorm? The city will never be quieter, because snow provides silence. Fresh snow consists more than 90% air. The air in snow absorb sound waves. But as soon as the surface of the snow hardens the snow reflects the sound.
