Six Miniblogs on Snow

It's cold outside, but here in South London, not cold enough to get snow. And as it is December and Christmas is looming, I've decided to write about snow - seemingly the only form of precipitation people really like. It's not all too complex, don't worry.

What is snow, compared to sleet and hail?

If you took a snowball into your house and let it melt, it would turn into a puddle of water - so it's obvious snow consists of water. Indeed, snow is rather similar to precipitation such as sleet or hail, not least as when it falls, it builds up into a white mass - similar to how sleet and hail may form piles.

Snow may resemble sleet, but the difference is that when snow falls, only snow falls, in the form of icy snowflakes - whereas sleet is a mixture of snow and rain, which can often melt before impact, thus causing it to be distinctively wetter than snow. Hail on the other hand is purely ice, occurring when water freezes in thunderclouds and falling as hailstones.

Why should I like snow?

I've been pondering this question for a while now, and I've come up with some basic theories as to why:

• It's rare, so it's more exciting when snow does fall (that is, when snow is rare);
• It can often mean a day off from work and school;
• Snow doesn't melt as quickly as sleet or hail (especially as it can accumulate more than sleet (which has already started melting before impact) or hail can), so you can make sculptures out of it;
• It's almost inseparable from the idea of Christmas.

Search "snow in culture" in Google, and many results are on a lecture/book by CP Snow; ask why "we" like snow, and some reasons given are: 

• nostalgia for when they were a child, which apparently "helps to heal emotional wounds"
  
• it can make the world quieter
• it smells nice - the linked article is essentially a candle ad, because of course it must be. 

Other articles, such as whether dogs/cats like snow, people hating snow, and facts about snow, appeared, making me wonder whether there's an actual cultural answer for why people like snow, or whether it's due to it essentially being inoffensive.

I suppose skiing is cool as well.

Where does it most commonly snow?

It's already been mentioned that snow is made up of ice, and ice will form if it's cold enough. You'd also need sufficient water vapour to freeze in clouds for snow to occur. 

So you might expect cooler areas to experience more snow, and you'd be right. These areas are mostly of higher reliefs, because that's where the air is thinnest and heat is most easily lost. The same is with more inland areas, which are colder than coastal areas during the winter (when temperatures are at their lowest annually) and thus are more likely to see snow settle as a result of the land being colder than the sea.

So areas in Northern Scotland are more likely to see snow, especially up in the Highlands, because those areas have a higher relief than much of Southern England, for example. Doesn't mean snow won't occur in other areas, however.

When is it a White Christmas?

The Met Office defines a White Christmas as being one when snow falls on Christmas Day, and it can be anywhere at anytime in the UK. 11pm in Hull is equal to 5am in London is equal to noon in Aberystwyth - but only one instance can still cause it to be a White Christmas. In my London corner for instance, there was no snow last year on the 25th, but it was still a White Christmas because snow was recorded elsewhere in the country. So take the stat with a shovel of salt - speaking of which...

Gritting

Why salt the earth when there's ice or snow? Put simply, it's because the salt speeds up the melting of the ice by decreasing its melting point, so ice is less likely to form. Obviously it's not that simple - gritting means the salt will react with the ice, causing a solution to form, one which is impure as this is no longer just water - so the melting point will change.

It's better to grit than leave the roads constant of course - that's why they're there, and also why there are those big green boxes on the side of many roads - they're filled with salt for the rare occasions the roads need to be gritted. 

Does it often snow in the summer?

It has snowed in the summer before, with one Guardian report claiming a cricket game had to be cancelled back in June 1975. I wouldn't say it's often, however, since news reports seem to be ones mostly of disbelief (like this one and this one), and I've certainly never witnessed it - though much like in the winter, whenever there's snow in the UK, it's a newsworthy event. And in the hyperlinked examples, maybe it's ambiguous. 

(In fact, in the case of the ITV article on snowfall in Bristol in July, I believe it could be due to fake snow as in these articles - ITV certainly didn't mention this possibility in their article, though I wouldn't be surprised if the video that no longer exists did clarify it - alas, there's no mention in that article which I find rather disappointing.) 

At least there's actual anecdotal evidence that is somewhat trustworthy.

Epilogue

If it snows where you live, enjoy it! It's not everyday.