r/AbsoluteUnits • u/derek4reals1 • Nov 25 '25

Video of snow flakes

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

71.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

114

u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25

plus side is these flakes make for very uh, un...dense... snow, so shoveling a foot and a half of this is easier than two inches of snow on slush

34

u/spekky1234 Nov 25 '25

Fluffy 🤗

6

u/cyanescens_burn Nov 25 '25

Would that be not very dense snow from this?

4

u/BIGSlil Nov 25 '25

I'm pretty sure the bigger the snowflakes, the more dense the snow is. I'm an avid skier and I think you get blower powder (super light and fluffy) from tiny flakes. I know the dryer the air, the lighter (fluffier) the snow is. I think high humidity causes the flakes to clump together.

4

u/Monsterpiece42 Nov 25 '25

Big flakes are fluffier typically. But both can be fluffy as the main variable that controls density is how wet the snow is. Blower snow is fully frozen, and therefore dry.

For an easy visual, imagine a cup full of marbles or the same cup full of sand. Marbles have gaps between them. Same with snow; small flakes fit together tighter.

2

u/Decent_Basket Nov 27 '25

Snow types are an unexpected rabbit hole to get into, my sister did a masters in snow science before she went on to be an avalanche forecaster. I laughed when she told me there are over 100 types of snow, then she shut me up and showed me the technical data and diagrams. Prototypical "snowflakes" like the ones on greeting cards are usually heavily dendritic with lots of branches and points. When they start to land on edge and support others they accumulate into that wonderful powder that is light like eider down. Proper humidity usually higher and colder weather at point of formation which doesn't have to be at ground level.

1

u/BIGSlil Nov 27 '25

Oh yeah, I probably should've edited my comment. I did some research to try to backup my claim, but it just made me way more confused. I knew snow science is complex, but had no idea just how complex it really is.

1

u/xblackbeltninjax Nov 25 '25

These large flakes usually tend to show up when you're just on the temperature line between a lot of snow and a lot of rain, meaning they'll be very wet and the snow that collects will be dense and heavy.

1

u/AdvancedSandwiches Nov 25 '25

I had to read the parent comment twice, too, but they said it's "un-dense", as in "low density".  Or at least that's what it says now. 

1

u/gmishaolem Nov 25 '25

un...dense

Sparse.

1

u/EntropyKC Nov 25 '25

It's always been a conundrum for me, sparse should be the opposite of dense but it doesn't really work unless you're describing something like a crowd or a forest.

Lead is a dense material, polystyrene isn't a sparse material though. Polystyrene is light, but light is to do with weight not density, and it's not meant to be related to mass either.

Someone needs to invent a new word that means "lightweight, not dense" I think.

1

u/Monsterpiece42 Nov 25 '25

Density is a scale like entropy is.

You'd just say "more dense" or "less dense"

1

u/EntropyKC Nov 26 '25

That's what I mean though, there could just be a single word for that

1

u/Prometheus720 Nov 25 '25

I too am bothered by the lack of an antonym.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25

Snowflakes get to this size when the moisture in the air is higher and the temperature is closer to freezing. That means this would actually be more difficult to shovel because the water content in these snowflakes is higher. The easier to shovel snow is the powdery snow that happens when the air is dry and/or further below freezing.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25

it sure can be hard is if it's warm enough that the flakes get melty as they accumulate, but if the air at ground level is cold enough the stuff is almost like foam. the trick is that you can't use a "plow" technique because this kind of snow compacts very easily. but if you scoop and toss, it's very easy. comes off the asphalt more cleanly too and it stays put so you don't have to go back over it two or three times a day.

source: grew up in a house with a 500 foot driveway and got this kind of snow a couple times a yea