One of the things I love the most about snow is the fact that it's white. It brightens the darkest days as well as the nights, though only when it's fresh. I love how it coats the trees and hides so much ugliness in the world. Everything feels brand new when there is a fresh coat of snow, making everything white.
But wait?
What do you mean that snow isn't white?!
The ten inches accumulating recently outside my back door in Upper Michigan sure looks white! (And this was actually our second significant snowfall of the season... bring it on!)
Just like water isn't really blue, neither is snow white. Both forms of H2O are actually clear... translucent. No color of its own, just reflecting others.
So, just like water is blue only when reflecting the blue sky, snow is only white because it reflects all the colors - but much better! You might remember that when mixing the colors of light that they blend to make white - which is what we see in the snow.
I have personally seen blue snow (at the bottom of about 18 inches after a 25 inch snowfall when I lived in Wyoming) and yellow snow (pulling the ash off the trees in NE Washington after the terrible fires of 2015.) But apparently, other colors also exist depending on the bacteria, algae or other factors affecting snow. Colors can include black, purple, blue, green, orange, even pink!
Here's more explanation from The Weather Channel:
Have you seen any of the other colors of snow? Which is your favorite?
There are two seasons in the Upper Peninsula... "winter's coming" and "winter's here." I like them both. This series is an excuse to make further use of my many snow pictures!
Photo taken in November 2022 with my TCL phone.
Sources:
https://www.livescience.com/32265-is-snow-always-white.html
https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/question524.htm
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/17-surprising-facts-about-snow
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Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
(Buy my work at RedBubble, TeePublic, PicFair and DeviantArt.)
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