>> Was surprised to learn that one can sometimes hear snow falling on water. Anyone else ever experienced that? >> Snow can be surprisingly noisy. For instance, stop on a packed ski trail at zero degrees F. and rotate the point of your ski pole in the packed snow, and listen to the snow squeak like styrofoam. Walk across that same snow, and listen to it crunch. At zero degrees Celsius, however, it makes hardly any sound at all. Snowflakes of any size or temperature, being solid, always make a sound when they hit water, even though it might be only a tiny whisper. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 01:14 PM 10/21/99 -0500, Chuck Holst wrote: >>> >Was surprised to learn that one can sometimes hear snow falling on >water. Anyone else ever experienced that? >>> > >Snow can be surprisingly noisy. For instance, stop on a packed ski >trail at zero degrees F. and rotate the point of your ski pole in >the packed snow, and listen to the snow squeak like styrofoam. Walk >across that same snow, and listen to it crunch. I always remember hearing that sound and knowing that it was going to be a good day because at that temperature conditions were usually really good. In "spring like" conditions that sound was more of a splash. While Snow can be surprisingly noisy it also can hinder one of the other senses. I was skiing one day at Squaw Valley when there was a combination of dense fog and blizzarding conditions. As I was making may way from the top of one chairlift to another that had a run with a protected bowl I was skiing through an area where the wind was blowing snow over a ridge across the run. At one point there was so much snow that I couldn't see where I was going so I stopped for a bit to wait for the wind to die down. At least I thought I was stopped until I felt myself go over a bump. There was so much snow that *everything* was white so I had no point of reference to tell that I was even moving. I just sat down and waited a minute until I could see the outlines of some trees. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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