Some interesting snow facts

3/6/2020 (Permalink)

I asked for a snowmobile. This wasn't what I expected.

Now that Spring is almost here, and thus far the snowfall amounts have been fairly close to normal, we thought it was time to give you a few interesting snow facts:

• The earliest LAST snowfall of the Chicago winter season was on March 9th, in 1946.
• The latest LAST snowfall of the season was on June 2, 1910.
• The greatest snowfall season was in 78-79, where 89.7" of snow fell.  The season before, 77-78, had 82.3" of snow.
• The least snowfall in a season was in 1930-31, where only 5.7" of snow fell.
• Chicago's largest snowfall was in 1967, where 23.0" fell.
• Snow is comprised mostly of air, trapped between crystals so they can't pack tightly.
• Generally, 10" of snow = 1" of rainfall, but that can vary with the temperature and amount of moisture in the air.
• Snow is actually colorless, but appears white as it reflects back all visible light.  If you have a larger snowbank with deep snow, then the color may appear blue, because the deep snow is now filtering out the light.
• It has never snowed in Chicago in July or August.
• The largest snowball fight ever recorded happened in Seattle Washington in January, 2013, where 5834 people participated.
• There's a myth that states whatever the date of the first snow, you'll get that many days of snowfall in the season.  This year, for instance, it snowed on October 31st, which means we should have had 31 days of snow during the season (rain does not count).