can survive the trip down — and the thermometer near your house may read 45 though.
Q. Do snowflakes that melt reform their original shape if they refreeze?
Conversation with David Longley helps clarify myths
DL: No. The temperature is going to be a little different. It typically refreezes into sleet. You won’t get that identical structure.
colors in snow banks. That’s due to the light reflected back to your eye.
Q: Is snow white, as it appears?
DL: So often, we’ll have sleet or freezing rain in the winter. Sleet begins as snow in the clouds, encounters a layer above freezing and a layer where it refreezes. They’re ice pellets. It’s like shoveling sugar if it accumulates. Freezing rain starts as snow, but melts as it’s coming down. It freezes
DL: It’s white because the different structure of the snowflake. It reflects all visible light back to our eye, so that’s why it appears white. I’ve not read anything to the contrary. You can sometimes get a bluish hue, depending upon temperature. A wet snow is not uncommon to have blue
Q: What is worse, sleet or freezing rain?
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on contact with the surface. Freezing rain is worse because it forms a glaze on things. If it’s on wires, poles and tree limbs, the extra weight can bring those items down. Freezing rain is more problematic than sleet or snow. We can remove snow, but typically unless it’s a very wet, heavy snow, we don’t have too many problems with snow accumulating on branches.
Q: Is it possible to have a thunderstorm in winter?
DL: People seem shocked that it’s not uncommon to have thunder and lightning in snowstorms. It’s like what we have in the summer: cold temperatures above us and an unstable atmosphere. The snowflakes colliding in the clouds create electrical differences. It’s not rare.
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WINTER GUIDE
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