Snow

ETYMOLOGY 

Snowstorms with 35 mph or more winds, visibility 1/4-mile or less and last at least three hours are called blizzards. Anything less is a just a snowstorm.

The word 'snow' dates back to the 9th century, 'snowball' originated around 1400, while 'snowflake' (1734) came over three centuries later. “Snowman” arrived in 1827, which means we threw snowballs for 400 years before making a snowman.

Pixiebay

It is a myth that the Inuit Eskimos have 50 words for snow. Whilst the Inuit did have about as many words for snow as the English, the Sami in Finland have in excess of 50.

Skiers and snowboarders have nonscientific words for snow that nonetheless convey their message. They include: Cascade mud, cauliflower, champagne snow, corduroy, mashed potatoes and pow pow.

Snow on top of a glacier that has not yet turned to ice is called “firn”. It has the appearance of wet sugar, but has a hardness that makes it extremely resistant to shovelling.

Firn—metamorphosed multi-year snow. By Doronenko 

HISTORY 

The Great Snow of 1717 dropped about 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) on Boston inhabitants, with some drifts reaching 25 feet (7.6-m), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

When coal heated homes and factories, coal dust in the air was absorbed by clouds and led to gray snow.

Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley  (February 9, 1865 – December 23, 1931) was one of the first known photographers of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated. Wilson Bentley took the first ever photograph of a snowflake in 1885.

Snowflake photos by Bentley, circa 1902

General Electric scientists first produced man-made snow on November 13, 1946. By 1952 the first snowmaking machinery was in regular use at a Catskill ski resort. Today, virtually every American ski area produces artificial snow.

The "Storm of the Century", a violent snowstorm, paralyzed the northeastern United States and the Appalachians in 1950, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia, recorded 57 inches of snow. 323 people died as a result of the storm.

On January 19, 1977, snow fell in south Florida and the Bahamas, and the Florida citrus industry was "nearly wiped out".

COMPOSITION

Snow is a mineral, just like diamonds and salt.

Fresh snow is 90 to 95 per cent air.

Fresh snow absorbs sound, lowering ambient noise over a landscape because the trapped air between snowflakes attenuate vibration. That’s why it gets so quiet when it snows

Snowflakes come in one of 35 general shapes according to temperature and humidity, contrary to the old claim that they are as unique as fingerprints.

At the center of almost every snow crystal is a tiny mote of dust, which can be anything from volcanic ash to a particle from outer space.

Freshly fallen snowflakes By Jason Hollinger 

Although falling snow has been recorded at minus-41 Celsius (-41.8 Fahrenheit), it can be too cold to snow if there's not enough moisture in the air.

When it melts, one inch of fresh snow may produce less than a 10th of an inch of water.

Dirty snow melts faster than white snow because it is darker and absorbs more heat.

FREQUENCY

Around 12 per cent of the earth's surface is permanently covered in snow and ice.

Pixiebay

Two-thirds of the people on Earth have never seen snow.

New York gets 15 times as much snow as the South Pole.

RECORDS 

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest recorded snowflakes were 15 inches across and 8 inches thick, and fell at Fort Keogh, Montana, in 1887. A rancher described the flakes as "larger than mild pans."

The worst avalanche in United States history took place in 1910. It buried a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people.

The record for the most snow ever recorded in a single day belongs to Silver Lake,  Colorado, where a whopping 6.3 feet (75.8 inches) of snow fell on April 14-15, 1921. This location sits at an elevation of 10,220 feet in the Rocky Mountains, creating conditions conducive to this extreme snowfall event.

On March 5, 2015, Capracotta, a small town in Italy received a staggering 8.4 feet (256 cm) of snow in 18 hours. This amount would be a new world record if official. However, verification of the record proved challenging. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) requires strict guidelines for record-keeping, including specific measurement methods and equipment placement. While local weather stations reported the 8.4 feet of snow, it wasn't officially recognized by the WMO due to possible inconsistencies. Therefore, Silver Lake, Colorado, with its 6.3 feet (75.8 inches) of snow, remains the official record holder. 

The greatest snowfall ever in a single storm was 189 inches at the Mount Shasta Ski Bowl in California in February, 1959.

The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, was the deadliest snowstorm in history.

The highest snowfall recorded in a one-year period was 1,224.5 inches (102 feet) between February 19, 1971, and February 18, 1972, at Mount Rainier Park in Washington, United States.

Aomori City in northern Japan gets the heaviest annual snowfall of any major city on Earth, with  an average 312 inches during a normal winter.

FUN SNOW FACTS 

An average snowflake falls at 3.1 mph, which is leisurely walking speed. Billions fall during a short snowstorm.

At least 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 septillion) ice crystals fall from the sky in the U.S. alone.

The UK experienced a significant snowfall event on February 2, 2009, often referred to as the "Big Freeze" due to its widespread impact and disruption. A playful claim was made that enough snow fell  for every Brit to make 251,800 snowballs each.

One inch of snow makes about 1/10 of an inch of water. And it's all drinkable.

At least 80 percent of freshwater is frozen, made of either ice or snow.

Shoveling snow is a known cause for heart attacks - the increase in blood pressure combined with cold air constricting arteries creates the right environment for it to happen.

The fear of snow is called chionophobia.

Sources Daily Express, Heraldnet, Huffington Post