The Blue Snow Phenomenon

[770guy]

I've seen a couple posts about the May 2nd storm and I got to wondering if anyone else in MN or WI experienced what I call the blue snow. The snow here in southern MN was so wet and heavy that it had a blue tinge to it. It had that much water in it! I heard of a local yard that was moving snow with a payloader, and they decided to run a bucketful over the scale. It weighed 4500 pounds! We were lucky enough here to have power in the morning, but we lost the roof of our freestall barn just before milking. Thankfully nobody was hurt and all the cattle walked away, but we did have to cut about a dozen out of the mess. I've never seen anything like this before, and hopefully I won't ever again.

 

[Loosehandle]

I always thought blue snow was pure like glacier ice where as yellow snow is not pure.....

 

[JF in MI]

Never heard of the "blue snow phenomenon" but have run into the "yellow snow phenomenon". My advice is "don"t eat it"!

 

[60 acre hillside]

In the Paul Buunyon stories one character would yell, "Black snow!" as a means of cursing.

 

[Roger Tomfohrde]

I know what you mean. When pushing our drive way out, 12" deep, it would slide ahead of the blade by up to six feet and you would see the blue tint in the middle as you went.I was using a 1541 Cub Cadet and had to work from the middle out moving just enough so we could get around the drive way.Cub was not heavy enough to angle plow and left quite a few holes to fill back in after it melts this week, most of it is gone now.Oh well.

 

[gmccool]

The reason it has a BLUE tint is because very dense snow & ice (glaciers) reflect ever color other than blue. Gerald

 

[Tony in Mass.]

That's a good description of what fell across Southern New England Halloween '11. The trees didn't lose their leaves yet, actually still attached to the branches pretty good for that time of year...so, 9 to 32 inches of 'blue snow' that fell like Italian Ice in a mater of a couple hours took down most of the branches and limbs, some of the trunks, and almost all the power lines they were hanging over. Something like 20,000 poles, 10,000 miles of downed wire and possibly 30 million down or mortally damaged trees. EVERY road blocked to traffic, either by trees, wires or by law. 3 million homes without power, in some of Conneticutt, all month, and almost 40 deaths. Actually, in Conn, after all month dealing with this, there were found to be over 200 suicides as well as accidents and fatal heart attacks.
Yes that blue snow was interesting stuff alright...

 

[Alan K]

Im in SW MN and we had that too a few days before I think..lol its all a blur anymore waiting for spring. Where are you located?

 

[Alan K]

I always wondered about the light snow the weatherman always mentioned...as opposed to the dark snow and yes of course the deadly yellow snow....

 

[frrankmn]

Yes, I noticed the snow looked blue too. I am in eastern Mn just southeast of the Cities.

 

[770guy]

Steele Co.