15 Surprising Facts About Snow

Love it (like when you’re curled up by the fire) or hate it (when you’re on the road), snow is a major part of winter for many people. Get to know the flurries and flakes on a deeper level with these 15 interesting facts.

1. Snowflakes aren’t the only form of snow.
2. Syracuse, New York, tried to make snow illegal.
3. It’s a myth that no two snowflakes are exactly the same.
4. The largest snowflake ever seen might have measured 15 inches in diameter.
5. Snow is translucent, not white.
6. It doesn’t always look white, though.
7. At least 1 septillion ice crystals fall from the sky each year in the U.S.
8. The record for the biggest snowfall in a 24-hour period in the U.S. is 75.8 inches.
9. The record for the most snow to fall in a single calendar day also occurred in Colorado.
10. Snow has never been reported in Key West, Florida.
11. Not every big snowstorm is a blizzard.
12. Igloos can be more than 100 degrees warmer inside than outside.
13. Canadians set the record for the most snow angels ever made at one time in multiple locations.
14. The biggest gathering of snow angels at one location took place in North Dakota.
15. The largest snowball fight on record happened in Saskatoon.

Snowflakes aren’t the only form of snow.

Snow can also precipitate as graupel or sleet. Not to be confused with hail, graupel (or snow pellets) are opaque ice particles that form in the atmosphere as the ice crystals fall through freezing cloud droplets—meaning cloud particles that are colder than the freezing point of water but remain liquid. The cloud droplets group together to form a soft, lumpy mass. Sleet, on the other hand, consists of drops of rain that freeze into small, translucent balls of ice as they fall from the sky.

Syracuse, New York, tried to make snow illegal.

America’s snowiest major city has an impressive arsenal of plows, but in 1992 it tried a new trick to control white stuff. The city’s Common Council passed a decree that any more snow before Christmas Eve was illegal. As it turns out, Mother Nature is a scofflaw—it snowed just two days later.

It’s a myth that no two snowflakes are exactly the same.

In 1988, a scientist found two identical snow crystals. They came from a storm in Wisconsin.

The largest snowflake ever seen might have measured 15 inches in diameter.

According to some sources, the largest snowflakes ever observed fell during a snowstorm in January 1887 at Montana’s Fort Keogh. While witnesses said the flakes were “larger than milk pans,” these claims have not been substantiated.

Snow is translucent, not white.

Snow, like the ice particles it’s made of, is actually colorless. It’s translucent, which means that light does not pass through it easily (like it would transparent glass), but is reflected instead. The light reflected off a snowflake’s faceted surface creates its white appearance.

But why white? The reason we see objects as colors is because some wavelengths of light are absorbed while others are reflected (remember, light is a spectrum of colors). The object takes on whatever color light is reflected. For example, the sky is blue because the blue wavelengths are reflected while the other colors are absorbed. Since snow is made up of so many tiny surfaces, the light that hits it is scattered in many directions and will actually bounce around from one surface to the next as it’s reflected. This means no wavelength is absorbed or reflected with any consistency, so the white light bounces back as the color white.

It doesn’t always look white, though.

Deep snow can often appear blue. This is because layers of snow can create a filter for the light, causing more red light to be absorbed than blue light. The result is that deeper snow appears blue—think about how your snowy footprints compare to the surrounding landscape.

Snow can also sometimes appear pink. Snow in high alpine areas and the coastal polar regions contains cryophilic fresh-water algae that have a red pigment that tints the surrounding snow.

At least 1 septillion ice crystals fall from the sky each year in the U.S.

That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000—24 zeros!

The record for the biggest snowfall in a 24-hour period in the U.S. is 75.8 inches.

In 1921, over six feet of snow fell between April 14 at 2:30 p.m. and April 15 at 2:30 p.m. in Silver Lake, Colorado.

The record for the most snow to fall in a single calendar day also occurred in Colorado.

On December 4, 1913, 63 inches of snow fell on Georgetown, Colorado.

Snow has never been reported in Key West, Florida.

There are no records of snow, sleet, frost, or ice ever occurring in Key West. The coldest temperature on record for the Florida city (reached on January 13, 1981, and January 12, 1886) is 41°F [PDF].

Not every big snowstorm is a blizzard.

In order to be classified as a blizzard, a snowstorm must meet a very specific set of qualifications. Winds must blow at least 35 miles per hour and the snowfall must reduce visibility to less than 0.25 miles for a period of at least three hours.

Other common types of snowstorms include a snow squall (an intense snowfall accompanied by strong winds that only lasts a short time) and a snowburst (a brief, intense snowfall that results in rapid accumulation of snow).

Igloos can be more than 100 degrees warmer inside than outside.

And they’re warmed entirely by body heat. Since fresh, compacted snow is approximately 90 to 95 percent trapped air (meaning it can’t move and transfer heat) it’s a great insulator. Many animals, such as bears, dig deep holes in the snow to hibernate through the winter.

Canadians set the record for the most snow angels ever made at one time in multiple locations.

On February 2, 2004, the London District Catholic School Board in Ontario, Canada, gathered 15,851 people in multiple places to make snow angels.

The biggest gathering of snow angels at one location took place in North Dakota.

The state capitol grounds in Bismarck witnessed 8962 people plop down in the snow to make snow angels in 2007.

The largest snowball fight on record happened in Saskatoon.

Exactly 7681 snow fighters in the Saskatchewan city came together to exchange frozen barrages and create the largest snowball fight in history on January 31, 2016.

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A version of this story was published in 2020; it has been updated for 2025.