Playing in the snow

Now that we finally have had to shovel out after a couple of real snowstorms and we are all sleeping on the bedroom floor to nurse our sore lower backs, the question is, “What good is this cold white junk anyway?”. It causes cars to get stuck, traffic to be snarled, messes up our backs and makes it hard to walk outside. But then, there is snowmobiling, snowshoeing, skiing, sledding and snowmen building. Hmm, maybe snow does have a purpose. 

According to scientists, snow is precipitation in the form of white or translucent ice crystals, chiefly in the complex branched hexagonal form and clustered into snowflakes. The snowflake-making process begins when tiny water droplets in the upper atmosphere reach a “supercooled” state, which means the temperature is around -40 degrees Fahrenheit...

...Once on the ground, snow has many useful functions. Ecologically, the two most important functions are probably water storage and insulation. It is ironic that a substance as cold as snow has insulating properties. People living in cold climates have taken advantage of snow’s ability to insulate by building shelters out of snow for millennia....   ...more

Ken Notes: Baby it`s cold out side, so at least the snow is more fun to look at than the ground... Also I believe one of the best ways to protect the environment is to USE it. The more hikers, skiers, snowmobilers, campers, hunters, photographers, cabin owners, and outdoor enthusiasts we have the more we can lobby to protect the land that attracts them.