It’s finally snowing in Northern Utah, which means that it actually looks like Christmas outside! During this time of year we get to see a lot of snow, but some of you may be wondering, where does snow come from?
The most basic answer for the question is obviously the sky, but how is snow formed in the sky? Where in the sky does it come from?
What is snow?
Before learning where something comes from or how something is formed, it’s a little easier to know what snow is. Other than the white, fluffy, cold stuff you see outside, scientifically, snow is precipitation in the form of ice crystals. Snow can be considered a mineral because it is made of one material, by the way it is formed, and its structure. Based on nsidc.org, there are four different forms of snow that fall.
Different forms of snow fall:
- “Snowflakes are clusters of ice crystals that fall from a cloud.
- Snow pellets, or graupel, are opaque ice particles in the atmosphere. They form as ice crystals fall through supercooled cloud droplets, which are below freezing but remain a liquid. The cloud droplets then freeze to the crystals, forming a lumpy mass. Graupel tends to be soft and crumbly.
- Sleet is composed of drops of rain or drizzle that freeze into ice as they fall, and is sometimes called a wintery mix of rain and snow. These small, translucent balls of ice are usually smaller than 0.76 centimeters (0.30 inches) in diameter. Official weather observations may list sleet as ice pellets. In some parts of the United States, the term sleet can refer to a mixture of ice pellets and freezing rain.
- One form of precipitation, hail, while frozen, is not considered snow. Hail tends to be larger than sleet, and is usually generated during thunderstorms, which happen more often in spring and summer than in winter. Hailstones form when upward moving air, or updrafts, in a thunderstorm prevent pieces of graupel from falling. Drops of supercooled water hit the graupel and freeze to it, causing the graupel to grow. When the balls of ice become too heavy for the updrafts to continue supporting them, they fall as hailstones.”
How does snow form and where does it come from?
Now that you know what snow is and the different forms that snow falls in, we can answer our original question. Where does snow come from and how is it formed? I decided to put these two questions together, because I’m not able to answer one question without answering the other.
Snow is formed in the atmosphere when the atmospheric temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit or colder. Snow fall relies heavily on atmospheric temperature, along with a specific amount moisture. Once there is a good amount of moisture, and the temperature is right, snow crystals start to form. These snow crystals grow by absorbing surrounding water droplets. When the crystals become too big, they fall to the ground.
I love the snow. I love how pretty everything looks after it has been snowing, I love being out in the snow, and I love the Christmas feeling.