How an Igloo Slows Heat Loss: Snow, Air and Shelter
A shelter made of snow seems an unlikely place to warm up. Yet an igloo works because snow is much more than frozen water: it also contains...
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: Dawn LaPointe’s Duluth Shoreline Film
Lake Superior can sound like a cupboard full of glass when its ice starts moving. In Dawn M. LaPointe’s film from Duluth, thin plates gathe...
Frozen Soap Bubbles: ZALUSKArt’s Close-Up Winter Film
A clear soap bubble sits on snow. Then tiny feather-like shapes appear, drift and spread until the little sphere looks etched. ZALUSKArt’s ...
Frozen Flowers in Minnesota: A Familiar Material Becomes Brittle
A flower is usually all bend, softness and movement. That makes the sudden brittleness in Minnesota Cold’s frozen-flower video so surprisin...
A Slow-Moving Avalanche in Valais: Why Pace Does Not Describe Its Force
There is no need for a towering powder cloud to make an avalanche formidable. In Christian Mermoud’s footage from Mayens-de-Saxon, in Switz...
Hot Water in Extreme Cold: What the White Cloud Does and Does Not Prove
A pale fan opens above a snowy yard and hangs in the air. Videos of hot water meeting extreme cold look like instant snowfall, but that tid...
A Dark Circle in Frozen Water: What an Image Can Establish
A dark circle sits within pale ice and snow, filled with a pattern that seems to radiate from the centre. It is easy to see why the origina...
Chris Ratzlaff’s Frozen Soap Bubbles in Calgary
A soap bubble normally gives you only a moment before it disappears. In Chris Ratzlaff’s Calgary film, the moment becomes something else: a...
An Aurora Film from 2015: Colour, Motion and the Superstorm Claim
Green curtains sweep across the sky, edged with brighter pink light. The aurora video circulated as a “superstorm,” a word that certainly f...
Great Lakes Ice Volcanoes: Waves Building Temporary Cones
A cone of ice suddenly throws water into the air. It looks like a miniature eruption, which explains the name “ice volcano.” Along the Grea...
If Earth’s Land Ice Melted: What the Sea-Level Maps Mean
A map showing familiar coastlines disappearing beneath higher seas is a powerful way to visualise how much water is stored in ice. It is al...