Crystal marshmallows

The snows have arrived. Today, the temperature was low and the ice crystals were stellar: six pointed crystals. Such crystals form when the temperature in the cloud is in the vicinity of -15C. Skiers love these low density crystals. When the stellars pile up, they refer to the snow as powder.

I sometimes facetiously refer to the stellar crystals as department-store snow for this is the only form of snow (out of the many crystalline forms that exist) that is ever presented to the public in the form of cutout store decorations during the winter.

Leaving aside the beauty of the many variations of stellar snow, the complex structure allows them to interlock when they pile up on something. The result is another lovely structure: crystalline marshmallows that adorn trees.

In the next posting, I will explore the way some birds handle these snow marshmallows.

As the snow fall begins, stellar crystals begin to interlock.

The interlocking crystals pile up to form a tower of snow on branches. Such a delicate structure only forms when there is no wind. As the wind is always stronger near a canopy’s top than within it, these structures are generally confined to the lower parts of a tree.

Ultimately they create crystalline marshmallows on the branches.

The trees adapt to this extra weight by having flexible branches. At higher altitudes where there is often a much greater snow load, branches slope downwards to better shed this load. (This picture was taken three years ago; the others were taken today).