How an Igloo Keeps You Warm: Snow Insulation, Cold Traps and Inuit Design
Outside, the air can fall to −45 °C. Inside a well-built igloo warmed by nothing more than the people sleeping in it, the temperature can s...
Explore the Snow Addiction archive
Winter Science: Snow, Ice, Weather & Observation
Why does ice look blue, and what can a dramatic cold-weather video really demonstrate? These stories use winter scenes as starting points for explanation. Look for the difference between an observation, a proposed mechanism and a tested conclusion. Follow the snow, ice and weather collections to connect the science with photographs and everyday experiences.
Lake Superior Ice Stacking: Glassy Ice Plates at Duluth’s Brighton Beach
Lake Superior can sound like a cupboard full of breaking glass when its ice starts to move. On 13 February 2016 Dawn M. LaPointe of Radiant...
Frozen Soap Bubbles: ZALUSKArt’s −15 °C Film and the Snow-Globe Effect
A clear soap bubble rests on fresh snow. Within seconds, feathery ice crystals appear on its skin, swirl around the sphere and knit together...
Frozen Flowers in Minnesota: Why Petals Shatter After a Night Outside
Leave a bouquet on a Minnesota porch on a January night and by morning it shatters like glass. That is the whole idea behind “Frozen Flower...
Slow Wet-Snow Avalanche at Mayens-de-Saxon, Valais: Hear the Trees Snap
Most famous avalanche videos show a white cloud racing down a mountain. Christian Mermoud's clip from Mayens-de-Saxon in the Swiss cant...
Boiling Water Into Snow: The Science of Hot Water in Extreme Cold
Toss a pot of boiling water into the air on a bitterly cold day and something magical happens: instead of splashing on the ground, it bursts...
Utah Lake’s Mystery Ice Circle: The 2015 Frozen Lake Video
In December 2015 a short video from Utah Lake spread across the internet. A group of people walking out on a foggy, frozen lake came across...
Frozen Soap Bubbles in Calgary: Chris Ratzlaff’s Film, Recipe and Science
Calgary photographer Chris Ratzlaff turned one of the coldest jobs in winter into a viral film. Working outdoors in deep Canadian cold, he ...
Northern Lights Superstorm Video: Aurora, Kp and the March 2015 Storm
Curtains of green light ripple across the sky, their lower edges flaring pink as they twist and fold. This real-time aurora video, uploaded...
Great Lakes Ice Volcanoes: How Waves Build Erupting Ice Cones
On a stormy winter day on the Great Lakes, a cone of ice on the shore suddenly blasts a plume of water and slush into the air. These “ice v...
If All the Ice Melted: Sea-Level Rise Maps and the Science Behind Them
Earth still holds more than five million cubic miles of ice. If every bit of it on land melted, the oceans would climb by roughly 65 to 70 ...
Ice Crystals Timelapse: Shawn Knol’s Melting Ice in Polarized Light
Ordinary ice is clear, yet in Shawn Knol's Ice Crystals Timelapse it glows in shifting bands of magenta, gold, green and blue as it me...
Red Fox Hunting Mice in Deep Snow: The Mousing Leap Explained
A red fox stands motionless on a snowfield, head cocked, ears pointed at the ground. Then it springs high into the air and dives headfirst i...
Clear Frozen Lake in Slovakia's High Tatras: Walking on See-Through Ice
Two hikers step onto a frozen mountain lake in Slovakia's High Tatras, and the ice is so clear that every stone on the bottom shows thro...
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18 Frozen Lakes, Ponds and Seas: Baikal, Abraham Lake and Frost Flowers
When water freezes, it can record its own story: methane bubbles stacked like coins under the surface, turquoise slabs pushed up by the win...
Titan’s North Pole Lakes: Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare and Cassini’s 2013 Views
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is the only world besides Earth known to have stable liquid on its surface. Almost all of it lies around the ...
Greenland’s Hidden Mega-Canyon: 750 km Beneath the Ice Sheet
Under two kilometres of ice in the middle of Greenland lies a canyon at least 750 kilometres long and up to 800 metres deep. A team led by P...