KENTWOOD, Mich. — It's something almost as certain as winter following the fall, each year someone online claims that the snowfall they just picked up is fake. They show proof of this by holding a flame to a freshly formed snowball.
The conspiracies used to explain this fake snowfall are wide ranging, from foreign actors, to government weather control, to the blaming of tech billionaires such as Bill Gates. It can be a lot to take in.
I don't blame people for wondering what is up though. Your basic instinct when seeing a flame put to snow is that the snow will melt into water. Instead what you see is the snow shrink away, no water comes out, and the snow picks up a black "burn mark".
So, what is going on here?
First, let's address the lack of liquid water.
Two factors are at play here. The first of these being sublimation. That is a process where enough energy is put into the frozen water, along with the pressure and other factors being appropriate, that the water goes straight from a solid to a gas. You can read more about that from the USGS.
The other factor at play is simply a physical property of snow. When snow starts to melt, that water does not immediately come out of the snowpack. The snow itself will absorb a certain amount of liquid water, turning itself into slush, before the water starts to leave the snow mass.
You can see that play out in the time-lapse below. A snowball was gathered from outside and brought inside to sit in an unheated pan. The total time condensed into this time-lapse was 45 minutes.
The final issue brought up by the conspiracy theory is the fact that the snow is getting burn marks. Snow should not burn.
They are right, snow doesn't burn, however the fuel you are using to create your flame is obviously burning. This burning is not 100% efficient, and thus releases carbon molecules into the atmosphere. These carbon molecules will attach to a surface close to the flame and become deposited as soot. They are what create the black marks on the snowball.
This can also be demonstrated by taking something, in this case a razor blade, that can also not be burned and using it to show the same effects.
You can see this in the video below.
So, is there some conspiracy or fake snow falling around the country?
No.
It's simply a natural occurrence that is the opposite of what we intuitively think should happen. Nothing sinister to see here folks!
If you have a weather question, feel free to reach out to me for an answer! You can find my contact information below.
-- Meteorologist Michael Behrens
Follow me on social media! Facebook Meteorologist Michael Behrens, Twitter @MikeBehrensWX, and Instagram @MikeBehrensWX.
Email me at: MBehrens@13OnYourSide.com.
Have a 30-second video or still photo to share? We'd love to share it with everyone! Email your image to Weather@13OnYourSide.com or post it to our 13OnYourSide Facebook Page.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.