For us, snow is more than frozen crystals of water. With the first snowfall, real winter comes, we get our skis and skates out of the mezzanine, and we are getting ready for the New Year's celebrations with might and main.
What is snow?
Snow is a form of atmospheric precipitation. A snowflake is formed when microscopic water droplets in clouds are attracted to dust particles and freeze. Ice crystals appearing in this case, initially not exceeding 0.1 mm in diameter, fall down and grow as a result of moisture condensation from the air on them.
Most of the world's population has never seen snow live - only in pictures and in movies. We are accustomed to snow and take it for granted, but in order for one snowflake to appear, an energy-consuming crystallization procedure must take place in the atmosphere.
It takes a million water droplets to form a single snowflake. In one winter with precipitation, about a septillion snowflakes (24 zero after one) fall on the Earth. Now you can multiply the septillion by a million and find out the number of water droplets.
Deceiving lightness
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A snowflake is 95% air, which is why snow soars so slowly above the ground in calm weather. However, this is an apparent ease, since with the amount of snow that falls, only 1 cm of snow cover on an area of 1 hectare can give from 25 to 35 cubic meters of water.
Snow has played a critical role in the geological history of the Earth. It was with the beginning of snowfalls and the appearance of snow-covered surfaces that the temperature of the Earth, red-hot by volcanic processes, began to decrease. Thanks to this, the planet has established a climate suitable for life. If it weren't for snowfalls, the Earth would be like Venus: red-hot and uninhabitable.
The uniqueness of snowflakes
Today it is already well known that there are no two identical snowflakes in nature, but scientists have come to this conclusion not so long ago. At the end of the 19th century, this was not known. American photographer Wilson Bentley in the 80s of the last century set out to compile a catalog of snowflakes.
He managed to take the first photo on January 15, 1885. Since that day, he has taken photographs of more than 5,000 snowflakes, which he began to study with his friend, the physicist Perkins. It was Bentley and Perkins who first announced that no two snowflakes are alike. Today, scientists have gone further and, using mathematical formulas, prove that the number of variants of snowflake shapes exceeds the number of atoms in the part of the Universe observed by man.
Snow colors
We used to think that snow is white. However, this is not always the case. In the highlands of California's Sierra Nevada, snow is often pink and is therefore called "watermelon". It acquires this shade due to the presence of particles of the Chlamydomonas nivalis algae containing the red pigment astaxanthin. Even black snow is known in history (it happened in Switzerland around Christmas 1969).
As for the white color of the snow … It's just white for us. The same Eskimos distinguish up to 24 shades of snow color, and the Sami even more - 41.
Snow and marketing
There are many types of snow, but only the Japanese have managed to make a marketing ploy out of snow diversity. In the early 1980s, Japan restricted the import of overseas ski equipment to support a domestic ski manufacturer.
In support of this, a myth was even launched about the supposedly special Japanese snow, on which foreign skis will not go. In Japan, a New Year's song even appeared, in which the Japanese ski champion cannot move, because he has foreign skis on him, and the snow under it is special, Japanese