GRAND RAPIDS — Even though we have seen a few minor snow showers recently winter is basically long gone. Did you miss having a lot of snow this season? Today's weather experiment we will make some snow and learn all about it! Let's get started!
What you need:
-baking soda
-water, conditioner or shaving cream
-mixing bowl
Step 1: Freeze the baking soda well in advance for atleast a day or two
Step 2: Measure out 4 cups of baking soda and put it into the bowl
Step 3: Add small amounts of water or conditioner and mix together with the baking soda until desired snow consistency is reached
Step 4: Grab a baking sheet and spread out your snow to play! Make a snowball or a snowman and have some fun!
What is snow? How does it form?
When tiny ice crystals in the clouds stick together they become snowflakes. If enough of these crystals stick together they’ll become heavy enough to fall to the ground just like rain does the same. Snow is formed though when temperatures are at or below freezing both in the clouds and at the surface level and there is moisture in the atmosphere for those ice crystals to form.
Snow can also fall in the form of graupel and sleet. When we do get snowflakes though they show up looking white in color because of how light is scattered and bounces off the ice crystals in the snow. That reflected light includes all the visible colors which come together and look white.
The average winter season snowfall total for Grand Rapids is 74.9 inches and in Muskegon it is 93.7 inches. In Michigan, our often snowiest and coldest month is January.
There you have it, we made snow! Send our meteorologist Candace Monacelli your pictures doing this experiments at home! She will feature future meteorologists on my Facebook page daily!
