Young Writers Society

Ok, so this may seem weird but I have never EVER experienced snow in all my eighteen years.

I would like your descriptions on
-texture
-how it feels when it first falls
-a thin layer of snow on the roads ~ is it slippery, sloshy?
-how does it feel when a snowball lands on you.

Well any other info would help on my current piece.
Thanks a ton.
~Lava

Because I live in South Dakota, home of massive snow falls, crazy blizzards, icky ice storms and all sorts of cold, I can probably help you out.

Texture – Snow has two very unique and distinct textures, just kind of weather depending. There’s the very dry, loose, powdery snow which is awful for snowball making and then there’s the heavier, sticky, damp snow that falls less whimsically but is awesome for snowball making.

How it feels when it first falls – The first snowfall is probably one of the most magical things ever, depending weather it’s a snowfall or a snow storm. When it’s a snow storm, it’s almost terrifying in its power. The wind bites threw even the thickest coast and manages to find its way into your shoes until your toes are burning with chill.
But when it’s a snowfall, then it can definitely be different. It’s the soft trickle of snow as it hits your cheeks, melting against the heat of your skin. It’s the tickle of snowflakes getting frozen into your hair and forming a soft white coat against your clothes.

A thin layer of snow on the roads ~ is it slippery, sloshy? It kind of depends. If it snow and then gets warmish, it turns to slush pretty quickly. But if it gets colder or just remains as cold, you’ll likely get a nice sheet of packed snow-ice that will send you’re car into a 180 and make for rather embarrassing moments, especially when you almost run into a church.

How does it feel when a snowball lands on you? If it’s a really good snowball, and a great through, it burns, at least if it hits your skin. Possibly one of the most painful thing in the world is a snowball to the face because it’s not only the blow of the snowball but also the cold hitting your bare, probably already cold, skin. The stomach is probably the second most painful cause well, all your soft squishy parts are in your stomach.

Hope I was some help!

~lilymoore

I think I can help out even though lilymoore got most of it.

Texture: Type 1. Powdery, it blows around, and it doesn't stick to the ground for more than a few hours. Type 2. Thick, squishy stuff that your shoes get stuck in if they're not tied tight enough. Type 3. A mixture of the two which mostly is the cause of high snow piles. It's just heavy enough to stick and pile up, and it's powdery enough to cause snow drifts.

When it first falls: If it's the thick snow it can be a bit wet when it falls. Once I got hit on the top of my head and I thought a bird pooped on me. The light stuff is very pretty, and you barely enough notice when it's coming down. It's like a winter wonderland. You probably wouldn't want to go outside during a snowstorm, but if you had to it hurts pretty badly with the wind and snow hits you. It can cause some pretty painful wind burn too.

On the road: If it's an inexperienced driver it can be a problem when it snows then freezes which causes the slick roads. When it's a heavy snowfall, it's really easy to get stuck.

Snowballs: If you've got a coat it's okay unless its an ice chunk. But the cold gets very bitter when you're wet.

Hope I helped!

Thanks guys. It really was helpful. It gave me a good insight.

You poor dear. We need to fly you out to see some snow somewhere.

-texture
Depends on the weather. When it's really cold out, it's almost like powdered sugar or something, so light and fluffy that it doesn't even pack down under your feet but just gets shoved out of the way. This can blow around in the wind and make drifts, like sand in the desert.

However, if it was larger flakes and it's a bit warmer, it can be this thick crunchy stuff that makes a great "scrunch" sound as you step on it. It makes fantastic snowballs and generally stays where you put it, so it's great for making snowmen and whatnot (the lighter stuff tends to just fall right back down where it came from when you shove it out of the way).

Think of it sort of like dry sand and wet sand at the beach: dry sand shifts around a lot and is no good for building anything or making any more than a vague foot-sized hole when you walk. Wet sand is much heavier and stays mostly where you put it, allowing for great castles and really distinct footprints.

-how it feels when it first falls
I've never really experienced a snow storm, but the first snow fall is the real reason I love snow. When you're outside in it, the world is so incredibly quiet. Sometimes the snow is silent as well, and sometimes you can hear a faint rustling as it hits the snow. It's like rain, but more of a rustle rather than a pattering.

Going out in the snow, you can feel it melt on your face, like little cold needles for a second, then just a faint misting of water on your face. When it touches your hair, you get this light dusting of white across your head that melts when you go into anywhere warm and instead turns into a kind of crown of water droplets that then runs down into the roots of your hair if you don't dry it off.

When a stiff wind blows snow in your face, it can really hurt. It's like being stung in the face with needles that then turn into moisture and make your face even colder.


-a thin layer of snow on the roads ~ is it slippery, sloshy?
Depends on the weather. When it's cold and it's the light powdery snow, it cakes on the road and cars can go drifting around in it because there is no purchase. When it's a bit more sloshy, it can be like going through deep puddles. Then if it gets cold after being sloshy, it will freeze into a layer of ice than can be incredibly slippery.

-how does it feel when a snowball lands on you?
If you get hit in the back with a good snowball and you have a coat on, all you really feel is a good thump to the back, like someone patting you really heartily on the back (though it depends on how close the thrower was and how strong they are). There's this great residue that gets left sometimes, like a little outline of the snowball clinging to the person's coat.

If you get hit in the face, though, it hurts horribly. Not only is there a good smack to the face, but it's cold and sharp all at the same time. It can feel like someone taking a ball of aluminum foil, freezing it and then hitting you in the face with it. Depending on how ice-flecked the snow is, you can actually get cut on your face if someone is strong hitting you with a sizeable snowball.

That said, snowball fights are teh bombz!!1

Hope this helps. Snow really is quite wonderful stuff.

I wasn’t raised around snow either but I currently live in ski town, work at a ski resort, and snowboard to work everyday. The texture varies a lot depending on how recently it fell and what temperature it’s been since then. When it first falls it’s powder, which is soft and doesn’t really stick together. It's no good for building snowmen and stuff but it's good for skiing/riding. If you step in it your foot will just sink right through (if there’s several feet it’s annoying to walk through), but it doesn’t hurt if you fall down on it, unlike ice. Another type of snow is packing snow. It’s not as soft as powder but not hard either. It sticks together so it’s good for making snowballs, snowmen, forts, etc. Then there’s ice, which is the same texture as the ice in your freezer. It’s slippery so you have to be careful walking on it. Then sometimes there’s snow that’s hard-packed but not quite ice. Then walking on it is similar to walking on solid ground.

About snow on the roads—it can be slippery, can be really slushy (same texture as a slurpy/icee), can be powdery, it just depends. It can also get so dirty it’s brown. The snow at the sides of the roads often becomes crunchy ice and stepping on it is sort of like stepping on crunchy leaves in fall.

About snow when it’s falling, it gets in your hair and on your eyelashes. If it’s light snow you barely feel it but if it’s snowing pretty hard and you’re up high on a chairlift or something it can actually kind of hurt your face. Also it can get your face kind of wet, which is annoying.

How it feels when a snowball hits you depends on the texture of the snow. If it’s icy it’ll hurt (but not a lot). Most of the time it doesn’t.