Love it or hate it, snow is a major part of winter for many people.

Here are 15 interesting facts about snow.

PABLO BALLESTEROS: Featured on Illustrator Saturday on January 9th 2021.

SNOWFLAKES AREN'T THE ONLY FORM OF SNOW.

Snow can also precipitate as graupel or sleet. Not to be confused with hail, graupel (or snow pellets) are opaque ice particles that form in the atmosphere as ice crystals fall through freezing cloud droplets—meaning cloud particles that are colder than the freezing point of water but remain liquid. The cloud droplets group together to form a soft, lumpy mass. Sleet, on the other hand, consists of drops of rain that freeze into small, translucent balls of ice as they fall from the sky.

JACLYN SINQUETT: Featured on Illustrator Saturday on January 16th 2021.

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK TRIED TO MAKE SNOW ILLEGAL.

America's snowiest major city has an impressive arsenal of plows, but in 1992 it tried a new trick to control white stuff. The city's Common Council passed a decree that any more snow before Christmas Eve was illegal. As it turns out, Mother Nature is a scofflaw—it snowed just two days later.

LAURA FREEMAN: Featured on Illustrator Saturday on February 6th 2021.

IT'S A MYTH THAT NO TWO SNOWFLAKES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME.

In 1988, a scientist found two identical snow crystals. They came from a storm in Wisconsin.

TOMMY DOYLE: Featured on Illustrator Saturday on February 13th 2021.

THE LARGEST SNOWFLAKE MIGHT HAVE BEEN 15 INCHES WIDE.

According to some sources, the largest snowflakes ever observed fell during a snowstorm in January 1887 at Montana's Fort Keogh. While witnesses said the flakes were "larger than milk pans," these claims have not been substantiated.

PADDY DONNELLY: Featured on Illustrator Saturday February 20th 2021.

SNOW IS TRANSLUCENT, NOT WHITE.

Snow, like the ice particles it's made up of, is actually colorless. It's translucent, which means that light does not pass through it easily (like it would transparent glass), but is rather reflected. It's the light reflected off a snowflake's faceted surface that creates its white appearance.

But why white? The reason we see objects as colors is because some wavelengths of light are absorbed while others are reflected (remember, light is a spectrum of colors). The object takes on whatever color light is reflected. For example, the sky is blue because the blue wavelengths are reflected while the other colors are absorbed. Since snow is made up of so many tiny surfaces, the light that hits it is scattered in many directions and will actually bounce around from one surface to the next as it's reflected. This means no wavelength is absorbed or reflected with any consistency, so the white light bounces back as the color white.

CYNTHIA CLIFF: Featured on Illustrator Saturday - February 27th 2021.

AND, IN FACT, IT DOESN'T ALWAYS APPEAR WHITE.

Deep snow can often appear blue. This is because layers of snow can create a filter for the light, causing more red light to be absorbed than blue light. The result is that deeper snow appears blue—think about how your snowy footprints compare to the surrounding landscape.

Snow can also sometimes appear pink. Snow in high alpine areas and the coastal polar regions contains cryophilic fresh-water algae that have a red pigment that tints the surrounding snow.

LUCKY PLATT: Featured on Illustrator Saturday - March 6th 2021

EACH WINTER IN THE U.S., AT LEAST 1 SEPTILLION ICE CRYSTALS FALL FROM THE SKY.

That's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000—24 zeros!

DAVID HOHN: Featured on Illustrator Saturday - March 13th 2021.

THE MOST SNOW TO FALL IN A 24-HOUR PERIOD IN THE UNITED STATES IS 75.8 INCHES.

In 1921, over six feet of snow fell between April 14 at 2:30 p.m. and April 15 at 2:30 p.m. in Silver Lake, Colorado.

KIRBI FAGAN: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on March 20th 2021.

COLORADO ALSO HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE MOST SNOW TO FALL IN A SINGLE CALENDAR DAY.

On December 4, 1913, 63 inches of snow fell on Georgetown, Colorado.

RACHEL SANSON: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on April 3rd 2021.

SNOW HAS NEVER BEEN REPORTED IN KEY WEST.

The coldest temperature on record for the Florida city (reached on January 13, 1981, and January 12, 1886) is 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

NADJA SARELL: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY om May 8th 2021.

NOT EVERY BIG SNOWSTORM IS A BLIZZARD.

In order to be classified as a blizzard, a snowstorm must meet a very specific set of qualifications. Winds must blow at least 35 miles per hour and the snowfall must reduce visibility to less than 0.25 miles for a period of at least three hours.

Other common types of snowstorms include a snow squall (an intense snowfall accompanied by strong winds that only lasts a short time) and a snowburst (a brief, intense snowfall that results in rapid accumulation of snow).

ELISA PAGANELLI: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on May 15th 2021

IGLOOS CAN BE MORE THAN 100 DEGREES WARMER INSIDE THAN OUTSIDE.

And they're warmed entirely by body heat. Since fresh, compacted snow is approximately 90 to 95 percent trapped air (meaning it can't move and transfer heat) it's a great insulator. Many animals, such as bears, dig deep holes in the snow to hibernate through the winter.

SALLY WALKER: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on May 29th 2021.

NOVA SCOTIA HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE MOST SNOW ANGELS EVER MADE SIMULTANEOUSLY IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.

In 2011, 22,022 Nova Scotia residents in 130 separate locations all plopped down in the snow to make snow angels.

ANA LATESE: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on June 19th 2021.

NORTH DAKOTA HOLDS THE RECORD FOR MOST SNOW ANGELS MADE SIMULTANEOUSLY IN ONE PLACE.

Back in 2007 it was 8962 people in North Dakota who plopped down in the snow to waggle their arms and legs to make snow angels.

LEE WHITE: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on July 10th 2021.

FEELING MORE DEVILISH? THE LARGEST SNOWBALL FIGHT ON RECORD TOOK PLACE IN SEATTLE.

Exactly 5834 snow fighters came together to exchange frozen barrages to create the largest snowball fight in the world on January 12, 2013.

KEN DALEY: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on August 14th 2021.

Deepest snow in the UK

The deepest snow ever recorded in an inhabited area of the UK was near Ruthin in North Wales during the severe winter of 1946-47. A series of cold spells brought large drifts of snow across the UK, causing transport problems and fuel shortages.

During March 1947 a snow depth of 1.65 metres was recorded.

MATT SCHU: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on August 21st 2021.

It doesn't have to be freezing to snow

Generally, the air temperature does need to be at or below freezing for snow to fall. However, if rain falls continuously through air with a temperature as high as 6 °C, it may cause the air temperature to fall low enough for the rain to turn to snow. This is because rain that persists for some time will gradually cool the air that surrounds it.

SHAUNA LYNN PANCZYSZYN: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on September 18th 2021.

The speed of snow

Most snow falls at a speed of between 1 - 4 mph dependent upon the individual snowflake's mass and surface area, as well as the environmental conditions surrounding its descent.

Snowflakes which collect supercooled water as they fall can fall at up to 9 mph, but snowflakes, as most people recognise them, will tend to float down at around 1.5 mph taking about an hour to reach the ground.

GEORGE SWEETLAND: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY October 2nd 2021.

Photographing snowflakes

The first person to capture a photograph of a snowflake was a farmer from the small town of Jericho in Vermont, US. After years of experimenting with connecting microscopes to a bellows camera, in 1885 Wilson Bentley succeeding in capturing the first ever snowflake photograph.

During his lifetime he photographed more than 5,000 snowflakes and even released a book packed with 2,400 images.

TAIA MORLEY: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on October 9th 2021.

Words for snow

Recent studies suggest that the Inuit do have many more words for snow than in English. The dialect spoken in Nunavik, Canada, for example, has at least 53 separate words including 'pukak' to refer to crystal-like snow that looks like salt; 'matsaaruti' meaning wet snow to ice a sleigh's runners; and 'qanik' to refer to falling snow.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow claim that the Scots language has 421 terms related to the white stuff, including 'skelf' (a large snowflake), 'spitters' (small drops of driving snow) and 'unbrak' (the beginning of a thaw).

BECCA STEDTLANDER: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY October 23rd 2021.

Fear of snow

Originating from the Greek chion meaning snow, and phobos for fear, the word Chionophobia is used to describe the condition of being afraid of snow.

It is often thought that the fear stems from childhood events, such as a sledging accident or being hit by a snowball, and symptoms include cold sweats and panic attacks.

KAREN BUNTING: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on November 13th 2021.

Chances of a white Christmas?

Whilst the vision of a Christmas Day surrounded by snow fills Christmas cards, movies and songs, snow is actually much more likely in January and February than in December.

In the UK, snow or sleet falls on an average of 3.9 days in December, compared to 5.3 days in January, 5.6 days in February and 4.2 days in March. There has been a widespread covering of snow (over 40 % of weather stations reporting snow) only four times in the last 51 years.

KIMBERLEY BARNES: FEATURED ON ILLUSTRATOR SATURDAY on November 20th 2021.

Snow affects sound

Freshly fallen snow absorbs sound waves, giving everything a seemingly hushed, quieter ambience after a flurry. But if the snow then melts and refreezes, the ice can reflect sound waves making sound travel further and clearer.

EMILIE BOON: Featured on Illustrator Saturday on November 27th 2021.

Monkeys love it

Don't think for a second we are the only mammals to enjoy a good snowball fight. Japanese macaques, also know as 'snow monkeys' have been observed making and playing with balls of snow. Young macaques appear to enjoy stealing each others snowballs, then battling to retrieve them.

JOY LAFORME: Featured on Illustrator Saturday on December 4th 2021.

Too much snow isn't good for you

Spend too much time on the slopes and you could suffer from piblokto or 'Arctic hysteria', a disorder affecting Inuit people living within the Arctic circle. Symptoms include meaningless verbal repetition or performing irrational or dangerous acts, followed by amnesia of the event. Vitamin A toxicity is thought to be one source of the disorder, though in recent years researchers have questioned whether the illness, thought to be based on as little as eight cases, actually exists at all.

MACKENZIE HALEY: Featured on Illustrator Saturday

A yodel won't cause an avalanche

There are a number of factors that can trigger an avalanche, but noise isn't one of them. Weight is a much more important contributor. A sudden deluge of snow, an increase in wind speed or even the over-zealous footstep of a skier can trigger a sudden, deadly, cascade. But a loud burst of terrible singing, that won't have much of an effect.

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Hope you enjoyed these wintry illustrations and the 2020 winter.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy