Snow in Science, Culture, and Climate

Snow Science

There is no single discipline called ”snow science.”  The study of snow pulls information from a diverse set of fields, including chemistry, physics, geology, ecology and biology. Snow studies can focus on tiny ice molecules or snow covering huge continents and ice sheets. 

Select the images below to learn about the science of snow!

Snow from the Sky

Photo by Matthew Sturm

Snow on the Ground

Bus on road with towering walls of snow (about twice as high as the bus)
Photo by Pietro Zanarini from Atlasobscura (CC-BY-2.0)

Properties of Snow

Wavy snow feature from melting and sintering
Photo by Matthew Sturm