now we know

[cellio]

Remember this funky snow formation, from the storm on Feb 6?



I wondered then how long it would hold that form. (It had already survived most of a day when I took the picture, which is longer than I would have thought.) The answer turned out to be: 12 days. It was there last night when I came home from work, and gone this morning. It did suffer some minor degradation along the way, but only minor -- the form was intact.

Wow.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know the physics/chemistry of this type of snow formation, but we see them frequently up here in Alaska. They seem to form when there is rapid build-up of snow. When the snow comes a few inches here, a few inches there, you don't usually see them. I suspect that the force of the weight of the snow causes the crystals to stick together.

--Carrie

[cellio]

Thanks. That makes sense. This storm was 21" in about 15-18 hours -- definitely more than we're used to at once.