Snow Facts

They fall from clouds in cold weather when the air is too cold to melt ice into rain.
Outside the tropics most rain starts to fall as snow but melts on the way down.
The snow falls in the northern USA than falls at the North Pole because it is too cold to snow at the North Pole.
The heaviest snow falls when the air temperature is hovering around freezing.
Snow can be hard to forecast because a rise in temperature of just 1°C or so can turn snow into rain.
All snowflakes have six sides. They usually consist of crystals that are flat plates, but occasionally needles and columns are also found.
W. A. Bentley was an American farmer who photographed thousands of snowflakes through microscopes. He never found two identical flakes.
In February 1959 the Mt Shaska Ski Bowl in California had 4800 mm of snow in just six days.
In March 1911 Tamarac in California was buried in 11,460 mm of snow. The Antarctic is buried in over 4000 m of snow.
The snowline is the lowest level on a mountain where snow remains throughout the summer. It is 5000 m in the tropics, 2700 m in the Alps, 600 m in Greenland and at sea level at the Poles.

This entry is filed under Interesting Facts.