Snow Sparkles: More on the way

Posted at 4:12 PM on February 3, 2010 by Paul Huttner (3 Comments)

Snow cystals sparkle like diamonds in a pristine winter scene at the Huttner Weather Lab today.
(Photos by Paul Huttner. Click on photo for a larger image.)

Think of all the people in the world who have never seen snow. Then take a look at these pictures of our stunning Minnesota winter landscape today. I know winter can be a drag this time of year, but you have to appreciate the amazing beauty that a snow covered landscape and bright sun creates.

Look at how the crystalline form of the snowflakes below play with the sunlight. You can see the individual snow crystals. We often see snowcover as one big blanket on the winter landscape. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see it's made up of millions (billions?) of individual crystals.

The infinite number of perfect yet varied snow crystals on the ground play with the sunlight in a million different ways. It's called reflection and refraction in physics. We might just call it magical.

Sun glints through ice crystals on trees this morning.

Snowflakes may be as close to creation as we can come on this earth.

Hopefully you can appreciate the beauty of our winterscape these February days. If you can that's good, because there's more snow on the way by late tomorrow into Friday!

PH

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Comments (3)

Had to fight the urge to eat a bowl of snow flakes for breakfast. Beautiful landscape, if you didn't have to drive on them!

Posted by Craig | February 3, 2010 4:43 PM

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Beautiful photos Paul! I wrote a whole symphony about this magic you speak of, Trilhas de Sombra ("Shadow Trails"), with movement two called Snow World. How I hear it...

Posted by Ann Millikan | February 4, 2010 1:41 PM

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I drove home Tuesday night ready to burst into the house with a "LET'S MOVE, WHY DO WE LIVE HERE?" but then as I pulled up the snow was gorgeous on the pine trees, and when I got out of the car it was the perfect cross country skiing texture. So instead I made plans to ski all weekend!

Posted by Tish | February 4, 2010 4:17 PM

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