Snow
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Snow, that wonderful stuff! Formed by water freezing high in the clouds, snow is made up by tiny crystals of ice that fall to earth and (if cold enough) cover the ground. This covering can reach incredible thickness, sometimes reaching a depth of more than 30 cm in some colder areas of world.
Winter Activities
Snow is an essential part of many winter activities. Skiing and sledding are two obvious examples of this, as without snow there sould be nothing to ski or sled on. However, snow isn't needed just in winter sports. It is more closely associated with the plethora of "backyard" winter activites. Popular examples of these are:
- Snowball fights, in which groups of people have fun by compressing snow into small balls or partially frozen water (usually not involving hard ice; completely frozen "iceballs" should be used only in fights where you don't mind more serious injury than wetness). "Wet" snow is essential to this activity, as totally frozen snow with no liquid water whatsoever will not stick together.
- The building of snowmen, dogs, and other structures. This again involves wet snow that will stick together, and can sometimes produce quite elaborate structures. For the traditionalists, there is always the old snowman consisting of three large balls stacked one on the other, in decreaing size going up, with buttons for eyes and a carrot for a nose. Adding winter hats and scarves will serve as additional decoration.
Unpleasant Aspects
Many people romanticize the idea of having snow falling from the sky or covering the ground; the song, "White Christmas" would be one example. I can only conclude that these people live in warm places such as California.
I don't deny that snow can be great, sometimes. All the winter activities people in temperate to cold areas enjoy (such as skiing, sledding, or snowball fights) all rely on its existence; however, it can be quite annoying at times. This is a fact well-known to anyone who has ever had to shovel the snow off their driveways. And of course, the "wet" variety of snow, while essential to making a good snowball, will stick to your boots when you go back inside.
Snow can also be quite annoying while driving. After all, cars can get stuck in snow, or slip and slide on partially melted snow during early or late winter. Snow also comes with it's companion, ice, which is notorious for causing cars to spin out while on the road, crashing into trees, telephone poles, walls, and other cars.
