Snowed nearly all day yesterday off and on here in Otsego giving us around 4 for inches to add to our winter total. We are now up to 36.3 inches for the season. I am hoping for another 4 inches to get up to a meager 40 inches. Most of this has come from synoptic events like last year we haven’t had much lake effect which is our greatest snowmaker in Allegan County. Of course, Bittersweet Ski Resort down the road is reporting a 20 to 26-inch base mainly from their snow cannons running at night.
We will close out our meteorological winter with cold and windy conditions bringing some lake effect snow showers along the lakeshore counties. Temps will be in the mid-20s during the day and the teens overnight.
Here are some fun facts about snow:
1. SNOWFLAKES AREN’T THE ONLY FORM OF SNOW.
Snow can also precipitate as graupel or sleet. Not to be confused with hail, graupel (or snow pellets) are opaque ice particles that form in the atmosphere as ice crystals fall through freezing cloud droplets—meaning cloud particles that are colder than the freezing point of water but remain liquid. The cloud droplets group together to form a soft, lumpy mass. Sleet, on the other hand, consists of drops of rain that freeze into small, translucent balls of ice as they fall from the sky.
2. SYRACUSE, NEW YORK TRIED TO MAKE SNOW ILLEGAL.
America’s snowiest major city has an impressive arsenal of plows, but in 1992 it tried a new trick to control white stuff. The city’s Common Council passed a decree that any more snow before Christmas Eve was illegal. As it turns out, Mother Nature is a scofflaw—it snowed just two days later.
3. IT’S A MYTH THAT NO TWO SNOWFLAKES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME.
In 1988, a scientist found two identical snow crystals. They came from a storm in Wisconsin.
4. THE LARGEST SNOWFLAKE MIGHT HAVE BEEN 15 INCHES WIDE.
According to some sources, the largest snowflakes ever observed fell during a snowstorm in January 1887 at Montana’s Fort Keogh. While witnesses said the flakes were “larger than milk pans,” these claims have not been substantiated.
5. SNOW IS TRANSLUCENT, NOT WHITE.
Snow, like the ice particles it’s made up of, is actually colorless. It’s translucent, which means that light does not pass through it easily (like it would transparent glass), but is rather reflected. It’s the light reflected off a snowflake’s faceted surface that creates its white appearance.
But why white? The reason we see objects as colors is because some wavelengths of light are absorbed while others are reflected (remember, light is a spectrum of colors). The object takes on whatever color light is reflected. For example, the sky is blue because the blue wavelengths are reflected while the other colors are absorbed. Since snow is made up of so many tiny surfaces, the light that hits it is scattered in many directions and will actually bounce around from one surface to the next as it’s reflected. This means no wavelength is absorbed or reflected with any consistency, so the white light bounces back as the color white.
6. AND, IN FACT, IT DOESN’T ALWAYS APPEAR WHITE.
Deep snow can often appear blue. This is because layers of snow can create a filter for the light, causing more red light to be absorbed than blue light. The result is that deeper snow appears blue—think about how your snowy footprints compare to the surrounding landscape.
Snow can also sometimes appear pink. Snow in high alpine areas and the coastal polar regions contains cryophilic fresh-water algae that have a red pigment that tints the surrounding snow.
7. EACH WINTER IN THE U.S., AT LEAST 1 SEPTILLION ICE CRYSTALS FALL FROM THE SKY.
That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000—24 zeros!
8. THE MOST SNOW TO FALL IN A 24-HOUR PERIOD IN THE UNITED STATES IS 75.8 INCHES.
In 1921, over six feet of snow fell between April 14 at 2:30 p.m. and April 15 at 2:30 p.m. in Silver Lake, Colorado.
9. COLORADO ALSO HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE MOST SNOW TO FALL IN A SINGLE CALENDAR DAY.
On December 4, 1913, 63 inches of snow fell on Georgetown, Colorado.
10. SNOW HAS NEVER BEEN REPORTED IN KEY WEST.
The coldest temperature on record for the Florida city (reached on January 13, 1981, and January 12, 1886) is 41 degrees Fahrenheit.
11. NOT EVERY BIG SNOWSTORM IS A BLIZZARD.
In order to be classified as a blizzard, a snowstorm must meet a very specific set of qualifications. Winds must blow at least 35 miles per hour and the snowfall must reduce visibility to less than 0.25 miles for a period of at least three hours.
Other common types of snowstorms include a snow squall (an intense snowfall accompanied by strong winds that only lasts a short time) and a snowburst (a brief, intense snowfall that results in rapid accumulation of snow).
12. IGLOOS CAN BE MORE THAN 100 DEGREES WARMER INSIDE THAN OUTSIDE.
And they’re warmed entirely by body heat. Since fresh, compacted snow is approximately 90 to 95 percent trapped air (meaning it can’t move and transfer heat) it’s a great insulator. Many animals, such as bears, dig deep holes in the snow to hibernate through the winter.
13. NOVA SCOTIA HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE MOST SNOW ANGELS EVER MADE SIMULTANEOUSLY IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.
In 2011, 22,022 Nova Scotia residents in 130 separate locations all plopped down in the snow to make snow angels.
14. NORTH DAKOTA HOLDS THE RECORD FOR MOST SNOW ANGELS MADE SIMULTANEOUSLY IN ONE PLACE.
Back in 2007 it was 8962 people in North Dakota who plopped down in the snow to waggle their arms and legs to make snow angels.
15. FEELING MORE DEVILISH? THE LARGEST SNOWBALL FIGHT ON RECORD TOOK PLACE IN SEATTLE.
Exactly 5834 snow fighters came together to exchange frozen barrages to create the largest snowball fight in the world on January 12, 2013.
Don’t worry about the next 2 nights with lows in the teens and the WSW and WWA up in snow country because mookie said winter is over! More facts get in the way of the warm weather lies! Incredible!
Don’t worry about the single digit wind chills because mookie said winter is over! Talk about a ridiculous statement! Incredible!
After today it sure looks like it!
https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/7f39432f98eef2d300f773cf914253d5f248e7131cb69cb63b087ebda662f574
haha Rocky doesn’t look at the forecasts though! Bye winter
Getting a good snow shower at this time. With the wind it is blowing around some.
Slim
Windy and cold great headline MV ..INDY
yes the ground is brown but the wind is cold. And at this time there are a few flakes with that cold wind.
Slim
The official snow fall at the airport yesterday was 1.9” while here at my house there was just a trace. And this morning the depth at the airport was reported as 1” while here at my house there is NO snow on the ground just the old snow piles. Now for the official readings for Grand Rapids are for February 15.9” for meteorological winter 41.7” and for the 2019/20 season 48.5”
Slim
Incorrect. 48.5″ on the season per NWS GRR.
I changed it.
Slim
A lot of interesting information on snow MV. Why no mention of yellow snow LOL
Slim
Cool facts, MV.
Local met this morning said some could see 55 on Sunday. As such, I am not touching the additional snow that fell last night.
Yep! I see lots of 45-55 days in our near future.
That was said at the end of January your 0-1 now … Hopefully March warms up ..INDY
Excellent comment! Keep the truth coming!
Let’s review the facts. Four weeks ago was the date Rocky said we would exceed 50″ of snow on the season. Today, we stand at only 48.5″ – almost 20″ below last year! What a downright awful year for the snow lovers. And one of the mildest winters recorded too!
No big deal but that 20″ is 18.9″ below last year at this date for GRR. How much snow has fallen at your house this winter?
Slim
Yep, almost 20″ below last year. I don’t have time nor the resources to track snow at my place. I do find it interesting that the GR airport has seemingly reported more snow than just about any GR location the past two snowfall events.
Wow, March is going to start warm, and I see no long duration cold air in the long-term. Let spring begin!
Interesting factoids, although, according to a book I’m currently reading, “Snow – A Scientific and Cultural Exploration”, Author is Giles Whittell c2018, states that, “At the molecular level snow is predictably structured, although only up to a point. It is also true that-indisputably, amazingly- that no two flakes are alike…. for two reasons. The first is that speck of (dust at the core). No two specks are created equal. The second is deuterium hydroxide, a naturally occurring heavy isotope of water… he loses me after that lol. Although the author is not a scientist himself, he cites most of the… Read more »