A snow story

By Linda Cicoira

Undriven snow sure is beautiful. It can brighten up a winter day. The first of it can make smiles appear on the most scowling of faces. And whether you favor it or hate it, you must admit it is exciting.

Although snow is translucent, it has a clean look that brings comfort and joy. The particles reflect light, making snow appear white.

Some folks believe snow eliminates germs. Others say when temperatures go back up, those underlying and determined cooties will still be able to make us sick.

People pray for snow because they don’t want to go to school or work. Big and small kids flap their limbs in it to make snow angels. Residents hurry to the store to stock up on necessities and snacks in anticipation of it as if they were preparing for Superbowl Sunday or the 4th of July.

But snow is quieter. The world seems calmer after a good snowfall. I always thought it was because most people are inside staying warm. But that is only part of the story.

Freshly fallen snow absorbs sound waves, giving everything a hushed ambiance. When it melts and refreezes, the ice can reflect sound waves, making sound travel further and clearer.

Snowflakes are formed when water droplets freeze around particles in the air. Watermelon snow is snow with algae growing on it. The algae are a reddish color. You can look for it but it is mostly found in the Canadian Rockies. When windblown snow and dirt combine, it is called snirt. I think the sky is falling. The sky is falling. A snowstorm becomes a blizzard when visibility is under a quarter of a mile and the storm continues for more than three hours with winds of 35 mph.

Of course, it isn’t that quiet when a snowball fight breaks out. The largest snowball fight on record took place in Seattle on Jan. 12, 2013, with 5,834 participants. In 2011, 22,022 Nova Scotia residents helped make a record for the most snow angels ever made simultaneously from 130 locations.

In 2007, North Dakota made a world record for most snow angels made simultaneously in one place when 8,962 people plopped down and fluttered about.

Each winter in the United States, at least 1 septillion ice crystals fall from the sky. A septillion is a number with 24 zeros. The most snow to fall in 24 hours in the U.S. was 75.8 inches or 6.32 feet. That happened in 1921 between 2:30 p.m. April 14 and 2:30 p.m. April 15 in Silver Lake, Colorado. The state also holds the record for the most snow to fall in a single calendar day when there wereInline image

63 inches in Georgetown, Colorado on Dec. 4, 1931. Aren’t you glad you live on the Eastern Shore?

The coldest temperature on record for Key West, Fla., was on Jan. 13, 1981, and Jan. 12, 1886 when it was 41 degrees. Snow has never been reported there. I wouldn’t appreciate that.

The fresher the snow, the less contaminated it can be with things like algae, bacteria, and pollution. As snow falls through the sky, it can lock in pollutants into its intricate latticework.

Fans of snow cream say it is better to wait a few hours into the snowfall to eat your first batch. They also say to wait until a second snow. The longer the snow falls, the cleaner the air, and the snow. And never eat plowed snow. I’m sticking to ice cream, thoughts of germs being eliminated, and several inches of snow that never falls on the roads.