Snow myths

When it comes to snow there are a lot of myths that come with it. For many people these myths have become gospel but the simple fact is that they are not true or are nothing more than urban legend.

When one thinks of myths you think of the Greeks and Romans. The Greeks believed that Snow was a white animal that was smart but became greedy. Snow was able to fly and decided one day to join the gods in the sky since he was intelligent and therefore was on the level of the gods. Unfortunately for Snow, Zeus saw him coming and hurled a lightning bolt at him shattering him into a white powder which fell to Earth and blanketed the ground. As further punishment, Zeus would then pick Snow back up and drop him back down every year on that date.

One myth is that if the ground is too warm then snow cannot accumulate. This is wrong. Snow can accumulate as long as the air is cold enough for snow and it can accumulate in April and May when temperatures warm up so the ground temperature has very little to do with whether snow lays or not. Along the same lines there is no temperature that is too cold for snow. In theory as the air gets colder it gets drier and at some point it will become too cold to snow but that temperature is well below what we experience here on Earth.

Global Warming used to be the buzzword. That term was changed to Climate Change. Why? Snowfall actually increased in many places. The planet is warming but some of the snowiest winters on record have come within the past generation. Warmer air actually produces better conditions for snowfall, and heavy snowfall at that.

While the term blizzard is thrown around commonly by everyone from meteorologists to the general public it is very difficult to actually reach blizzard conditions. Those conditions are: sustained wind gusts over 35 mph, a visibility of ¼ mile or less and blowing or drifting snow all for 3 hours or more. Most storms lack the strong winds necessary but can meet the other criteria.

For us here in Pennsylvania we have made numerous groundhogs into local celebrities and gain our forecast for the months of February and March from them. We probably shouldn’t. Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog of them all (sorry Gus), is only correct 39% of the time as of 2016. Not good when you have a 50% chance of being right but that does not stop the party at Gobbler’s Knob!

Oh, and then there is the legend that no two snowflakes are the same. This has never been scientifically proven, especially since it is impossible to go out and examine every single snowflake the world over but how many different crystalline shapes and structures can there be? One can wonder though!

Of course for the residents of Central Pennsylvania snow is no myth. If your business is in Chambersburg, Carlisle, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Hershey, Middletown or Harrisburg and needs commercial snow and ice removal services then give Michael B. Stoner Inc. a call at 717-245-2225 or visit our contact page. Like Zeus we know how to deal with snow!