Ricky Cohn, aged 7, of Milwa.ukee, Wis. for his question:
What is snow?
Come winter, the rich fields and beautiful hillsides of Wisconsin wear a blanket of snow. The white blanket tends to cool off the air above it. But somehow it manages to keep the ground below it warmer, It huge in the ground warmth, keeping it from going off into the air. It keeps the frost from reaching way down to harm the deep roots of the handsome trees. Come string, it melts slowly. It lets the water trickle gently down to bring life into the rich soil, A beautiful blanket of snow, then, is good for the farmlands and the forests,
Maybe you have heard someone say that it sometimes gets too cold for snow, This can never be so. For snowstorms in Alaska have been known when the temperature is as low as minus 52 degrees Fahrenheit, that's cold. Most snow, however, is , formed u4ien. the ,temperature‑ is a little below freezing. It is formed from water vapor, generally high above the ground, Cool air can carry less vapor than warm air. So really cold air has less vapor with which to make snow, But it has a little, and some snow can fall on the coldest of days.
Moisture is forever drying up from the face of the earth, The sun evaporates it from the seas, from damp earth, from puddles and lines of laundry, This moisture becomes gas and mixes "with the other gases in the air. It is water vapor. It is invisible because it is made of particles too small to be seen. Usually there is more vapor in warm air than in cool air.
Sooner or later, this evaporated moisture must be returned to the earth. Masses of, vapor collect in tiny droplets, still small enough to ride the breezes, These droplets get around bits of dust and form raindrops. When big enough, the raindrops fall back to the earth.
Snow, however, is not frozen raindrops. A snowflake is formed directly from the minute ?articles of water vapor, Trillions of these particles go to make up every single snowflake. They freeze into tiny crystals. Like' all crystals, they tend to arrange themselves in a certain pattern. Water vapor crystals always get into a six‑sided design.
Most snowflakes are too small for us to see their beautiful designs, What’s more, many of them get smashed or broken Ps they tn1i through the air, With trillions of pieces to arrange, it is no wonder that the design for every snow flake is different. Little pockets of air are trapped between the crystal designs. This is what makes a snowflake look white, It is actually a wonderful arrangement of tiny crystals and pockets of air.
Come spring, the snow melts, Some of it goes directly back into the air as vapor. Some of it becomes moist water and trickles through the ground. The trapped air goes off to join the air above, The snowflake loses its whiteness as it separates again into air end water.