Thanks Bruce yep I still like a good snowfall but would prefer flying somewhere to see it haha. If you ever do get up this way I'll glady show ya some ! (it snows somewhere in Alberta evey month)
Thanks Peter - you have been hammered way more than us with snow - still when the wife and I were playing catch on the street two days ago preparing for the slo-pitch season it gets depressing quickly !
And Grant ............... you , you , you .I love those shots ! It was funny while in Mexico our first Scuba dive the locals were suggestion we wear a thicker wet suit as the water was cold hhahah cold haha has a different meaning down there. Once we told them while white water rafting we jumped into a glacier fed river that was about 3 degrees they almost had a heart attack !
The white stuff ?? Well since you asked here (cheeky bugger
)
Snow begins in the atmosphere as water condenses into a tiny droplet. As more and more water vapor condenses onto its surface, the droplet grows. Cold air then freezes this water into an ice crystal.
Each ice crystal has a unique shape that depends on the surrounding air's temperature and water vapor content. If it is below freezing and there is a lot of water vapor in the air, the crystal grows six evenly spaced branches. More and more water vapor collects on these branches and freezes, making the ice crystal increasingly heavy. Eventually, the ice crystal falls from the sky, leaving the cloud of precipitation that it helped to form. As it falls, the crystal continues to grow by picking up more water vapor.
As it descends, the ice crystal can come into contact with warmer air that makes it melt somewhat. This melting acts like a glue, causing crystals to bond together into larger flakes, forming what many people think of as the "classic" fluffy snowflake. If the crystals melt too much and then refreeze as they get closer to Earth's surface, the precipitation falls as sleet instead of snow.
Once on the ground, snow will remain if temperatures are cold enough to keep it from melting. Glaciers that form on mountains, for example, are made up of snow that accumulates on the ground and eventually turns to ice.
** plagerized from
Ice and Snow
And when you see it 7 or 8 months of year well it can looses some of it's magic haha
Last edited by daacon; 04-06-2008 at 07:21 AM.