Snow

Snow

Snow is a form of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Types which fall in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing, rather than a flake, are known as graupel, ice pellets or snow grains. Snowfall amount and its related liquid equivalent precipitation amount are determined using a variety of different rain gauges.

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Famous quotes containing the word snow:

    Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
    The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
    Edward Thomas (1878–1917)

    When snow like sheep lay in the fold
    Geoffrey Hill (b. 1932)

    There is a mountain in the distant West
    That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
    Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
    Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
    These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
    And seasons, changeless since the day she died.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)