© Shutterstock

Snow isn't white -

You can still dream of a white Christmas, even if it's not entirely accurate. Snow isn't actually white, but rather translucent. It’s the light reflecting off it that makes it appear white.

© Shutterstock

Snow can sometimes appear blue or pink -

For reasons similar to why it appears white, snow can sometimes appear blue. But in cases where the light penetrates deeper into the snow, more red light might get absorbed, giving the snow a pink look.

© Shutterstock

Snow affects sound -

Freshly fallen snow absorbs sound waves, which makes everything sound quieter. But then when it melts and refreezes, the ice can reflect sound waves, making sound travel further and clearer.

© Shutterstock

Grown from a nucleus -

Snowflakes or snow crystals don't have nuclei that contain genetic information. Instead, they form around one single particle, be it dust or pollen.

© Shutterstock

Snowflakes have many designs -

One of the determining factors in the shape of individual snowflakes is the air temperature. The study of snowflakes identified that long and thin needle-like ice crystals form at around 28°F (-2°C), while a temperature of 23°F (-5°C) will form very flat, plate-like crystals.

© Shutterstock

Snapping snowflakes -

The first person to capture a photograph of a snowflake was a farmer from Jericho in Vermont. After years of experimenting with connecting microscopes to a camera, in 1885 Wilson Bentley captured the first snowflake photograph.

© Public Domain

The formation of snow -

The first step in the formation of a snowflake is an extremely cold water droplet freezing onto a pollen or dust particle in the sky. Then, the vapor freezes onto the primary ice crystal as it falls to the ground, which then builds new crystals.

© Shutterstock

Monkeys love it -

Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, love a good snowball fight. Both young and old macaques have been observed making and playing with snowballs.

© Shutterstock

Snowflakes get big -

For decades, there have been many stories of giant snowflakes all around the world. Some have been reported to measure anywhere from 2 to 6 inches (5 cm to 15 cm), and even as much as 15 inches (38 cm). While many of these claims have been doubted due to insufficient evidence, scientists believe there’s nothing to stop flakes from growing that big.

© Shutterstock

Too much snow isn’t good for you -

If you spend too much time on the slopes, you could suffer from piblokto, or Arctic hysteria. It's a disorder, largely affecting Inuit people living within the Arctic Circle. Symptoms include meaningless verbal repetition and performing irrational or dangerous acts, followed by amnesia.

© Shutterstock

Identical snowflakes do exist -

Contrary to the popular belief that no two snowflakes are alike, identical snowflakes have been found. In 1988, scientist Nancy Knight found a pair of identical flakes resulting from a storm in Wisconsin.

© Shutterstock

Inuits have many words for it -

The Inuit people have about 50 snow-related words. For example, qanuk means snowflake, kanevvluk is fine snow, and muruaneq is soft, deep snow.

© Shutterstock

But the Scots have many more -

Researchers at the University of Glasgow claim that the Scots language has 421 terms related to snow. Some include "skelf" (a large snowflake) and "spitters" (small drops of driving snow).

© Shutterstock

It’s hard to define -

Be careful if you want to refer to a snowstorm as a "blizzard." Snowfalls must meet a strict set of criteria to be considered a blizzard. For example, the wind must reach speeds of about 30 mph (48 kph).

© Shutterstock

Snowfall phobia -

One very real psychological condition is chionophobia, or a fear of snow. It's derived from chion, the Greek word for snow.

© Shutterstock

Snow on Mars -

According to NASA, there may be sudden, violent snowstorms on Mars. Scientists have also detected a cloud of carbon dioxide snowflakes over the southern pole of the planet.

© Shutterstock

It doesn't have to be freezing to snow -

Generally, the air temperature doesn't need to be at or below freezing for snow to fall. But any temperature above 50°F (10°C) is simply too warm for snow to fall.

© Shutterstock

It can never be too cold for snow -

On the opposite end of the spectrum, it can never be too cold for snow to fall.

© Shutterstock

Snow warms you up -

Because snow is composed of 90 to 95% trapped air, it's a great insulator. This is the reason why many animals burrow deep into the snow to hibernate, and why igloos are warmer inside than outside.

© Shutterstock

Wet snow is best for snowman building -

Wet snow has the ideal moisture content needed to build the best snowman. If the snow is too dry, then it won't stick together.

© Shutterstock

Speedy snowflakes -

Depending on the environmental conditions in the air, snowflakes can fall at a speed of up to 9 mph (14 kph). It takes roughly an hour for a flake to leave its cloud and reach the ground.

© Shutterstock

A yodel won't cause an avalanche -

There are many factors that can trigger an avalanche, but noise isn't one of them. A sudden deluge of snow, an increase in wind speed, or even the heavy footsteps of a skier can trigger a sudden, deadly avalanche.

© Shutterstock

About one septillion snow crystals fall each year -

Around the world, approximately one septillion snow crystals fall from the sky. That's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!

© Shutterstock

Thundersnow is real -

A rare phenomenon, thundersnow is when a thunder strikes in the midst of a snowstorm. It's particularly rare, as snow usually suppresses sound.

© Shutterstock

Snow occasionally rolls itself -

A rare phenomenon called "snow rollers," snow can sometimes create massive snowballs on its own. It occurs when the wind blows a bunch of snow along the ground, which gets larger as it rolls.

© Shutterstock

Snow can make you blind -

Due to its structure, snow reflects a huge amount of sunlight. Without the protection of sunglasses, the eye's cornea and conjunctiva can burn. Snow blindness, or known in medical terms as actinic keratosis and photokeratitis, can result in vision loss.

© Shutterstock

Snowflakes aren't the only form of snow -

Snow can also precipitate as graupel or sleet. Not to be confused with hail, graupel (pictured) are opaque ice particles that form in the atmosphere as ice crystals.

© Shutterstock

The smell of snow -

While some people are convinced that they can smell snow, at the end of the day it's water–which makes it odorless.

© Shutterstock

A catalog of snowflakes -

Creator of the Compound Interest science blog, Andy Brunning has cataloged 35 different types of snowflakes!

Sources: (BBC Earth) (Fox Weather) (Mental Floss)

See also: Believe it or not–snow falls in these African countries 

© Shutterstock