Snow

pitw · December 27, 2009, 04:13:47 PM

I never realized before I got on this forum that snow wasn't something to take for granted

. I kinda/sorta thought[as usual] that because I had it everyone did. I figured maybe some of us with it could try and describe what it's like for those that don't.
It is a most wonderful/hateful commodity that can uplift your spirits while breaking your back.Water is cool and can make pretty sounds but snow is cold and will make eerie sounds. I asked the wife before she left "how do I describe the sounds of snow". Her answer was "you can't"

. I'll try though, snow changes sounds with the changing of temperature. It can squeak like a mouse or roar like a bomb. When you walk on leaves you here the crunch, crusted snow can be close to that but usually it squeaks as you walk upon it and when it's close to 32F you can almost make no sound at all.
To look at it can be as pure a sight as ever seen and tracks can be seen quite clear. The wind sculpts it and can make dazzling displays. But to look out and see a Kazillion gleaming diamonds is the best to me.

Here are 2 pics cause I can't do like some other guys with pictures and If you play with them you may see the diamonds I speak of.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can explain it better as I know I'm not the onlly one with this wonder of nature or the cold temps to make it change.

slagmaker · December 27, 2009, 04:37:09 PM

The colder it gets the dryer the snow gets. As the snow dries it has less tendency to stick together and more like slides or acts like fine grained sand. Snow of a cold enough nature will squeek when you try to squeeze it into a snow ball but will simply fall apart when you let go. To make an igloo you have to have snow that will stick together but not so "wet" that it crumbles when ya try to move it. When snow has the glitter look you dont have snow flakes but a more crystlin structure. The shapes of the snow crystals are similar and this is what causes the Glittering effect. \

To really show this off when it gets cold and I mean COLD go out and take a spot light and aim it straght up. Then step back a couple dozen yards and look up at the beam shining up into the falling crystals. You should have some artificaly created Light pillars. Light pillars are caused my ice crystasl in the air reflecting the light back along the same plane. Depending on the size and shape of the crystals your ligt beam may actually be of one of the colors of the rainbow. You can see the same thing when the sun is below the horizon and you see a shaft of light going up into the heavens but without the color changes. Light pilliars are usually of a red nature due to the scattering effect of the crystals.

And no the yellow snow is not lemon flavored!

pitw · December 27, 2009, 05:34:21 PM

Quote from: slagmaker on December 27, 2009, 04:37:09 PM
And no the yellow snow is not lemon flavored!

How the "L" do you know that

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

slagmaker · December 27, 2009, 05:55:38 PM

Well one time on a dare.....................Bop tried it. He said it wernt lemon

msmith · December 27, 2009, 06:03:02 PM

I like to be out in the snow at night, especially when there is a bright moon and the snow is a dry fluffy one.

slagmaker · December 27, 2009, 06:22:10 PM

Have ya ever seen snow rollers? It is when the conditions are perfect and the snow will roll itself into like a jelly roll kind of thing.

msmith · December 27, 2009, 06:26:25 PM

Not that I can recall. I do think it's neat when the drifts take shape and look like breakers at the beach.

slagmaker · December 27, 2009, 07:32:00 PM

I am trying to find some pictures I took of the snow rollers that happened here several years ago. They are very neat to see.

pitw · December 27, 2009, 07:38:21 PM

Snow balls are cool and it does take the right conditions. Seen them around here maybe 15 times and once where some went to over 30". I think a good musician could tell you the temperature outside by the squeak of the snow.

alscalls · December 27, 2009, 08:32:02 PM

I know it seem like we dont get as much of it as we used to......When I was younger we would go ice fishing every year about the same time and now it seems we only get good ice every other year or so......

I can remember before ice out.....many years ago.....fishing on 23" of ice and it was 60deg. outside....

Then the sun would drop behind the hill and it would be so cold you could not stand it.....
Some years the ice would be covered with deep snow and id made quiet groans.......some years the wind kept the snow of the lake and when it cracked it sounded like a rifle shot.....with a long eco......then it would groan as if it were gonna swallow ya up.
I miss taking a newbie Ice fishing and watching his face when the ice cracked.....

Now we are lucky to see 4-5" of ice.

On the coldest of days the wind blown snow would sting your face.......other times it feels good....But with out it....the bugs would rule in summer and just think of all the things we would miss.....

slagmaker · December 27, 2009, 09:13:08 PM

I was hunting with my cousin a few years back and the temp was somewehre around -25 when the lake we were sitting next to cracked. We both knew what it was but it still will make ya bout jump out of your skin when it happens.

Found my snow ball pictures now if I can just get them up loaded and posted.

slagmaker · December 27, 2009, 09:58:31 PM

Here are a couple pic of the snow rollers.

Takes me forever to upload anything. I will try to get more loaded tomorrow. It times my connection out if I try toooo much at once

FinsnFur · December 27, 2009, 10:29:49 PM

Now that is cool.
Never seen anything like that, that I'm aware of.
I'm guessing you'd need a pretty steep incline to get it to take on it's own like that. How steep is this?

FinsnFur · December 27, 2009, 10:31:15 PM

Now that I look at it closer, it looks like they were rolled right to left, which actually appears to be UPHILL.
So.....

the winds do this?

slagmaker · December 27, 2009, 10:56:27 PM

Yep the winds did that. I have other pictures that show them rolling on flat ground and some going UP hill.

The top picture is on flat ground. The bottom is only slightly inclined. Higher on the left.

Conditions have to be perfect fo this to happen

pitw · December 28, 2009, 12:42:45 AM

Somehow the way you guy's have described and shown me where you live I'd hazard a guess that this is more of a flat land thing.

FinsnFur · December 28, 2009, 01:21:20 AM

I'm guessing the same thing.
I dont think I've ever seen anything like that, but there's nothing flat here. We got hills in the rivers

Okanagan · December 28, 2009, 04:59:53 AM

Slagmaker, thanks for the pics of snow rollers. I've lived around snow all my life and I've never seen anything like that nor heard of it before. 'Course I've not lived in flat open country either.

That is fascinating! I wonder how snow rollers get started? Starting a snowball big enough to roll is the hard part, depending on snow temperatures.

By the way, even in deep cold you can build snow blocks, when snow is way too cold to stick together or make a snow ball. I had to try it to prove it to myself. If you disturb the snow, even dry powder snow, it will set so that you can cut blocks from it. It takes from 5-15 minutes for it to set. Just fluff it some way or shovel it into a pile and leave it alone. After a wait you can cut it into blocks. It changes the crystal and connection structure between flakes some way.

pitw is right about the different sounds now makes, and I'll bet he is right that with training a person could tell exact temp by the sound of walking on snow. It groans in deep cold.

alscalls · December 28, 2009, 09:02:52 AM

WOW!! I aint never seen that before.....

pitw · December 28, 2009, 09:23:07 AM

Snow balls usually happen here during chinooks which is a weather pattern that brings in war air from the west. The heated air warms the snow to consistency favorable to sticking snow together and with the high winds it just starts a crystal moving and they start sticking as it rolls. The whole province can be under a chinook but only a few quarter sections will ever really get the right conditions for the event.[kinda/sorta like being at the epicenter of an earthquake].