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Burning snow - FlickerOfLight - 01-22-2025
We had a rare treat of getting some snow fall here in the southeast United States tonight. I've only seen snow a few times so this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I had to go outside and just be in the snow. I geared up with a bunch of layers and headed out. I was amazed at how eery it felt to me at first being engulfed in a flurry of white specs all around. The snowflakes seemed huge to me, as I watched them whip around in my ultra bright flood lights i had switched on to be able to witness this rare site.
I had a quiet thought creep into the back of my mind.
The snow didn't feel "real" to me. I had one of those old tin hat moments, and thought to myself, "I wonder if this is weather manipulated snow?"
I brushed it off, but it crept back in as I caught a few of these snowflakes on my tongue; A few even hit me in the eyes. But, I went back to enjoying this experience both visually,
and even audibly. Snow makes the most peaceful sound the way it falls. This was something i wont soon forget.
I go back inside so i dont die from pneumonia, sitting back watching some youtube, and I run across this video of people who are having this rare snow in the south.
They are burning the snow and it's not melting. It's burning.
Skip to the 2 min mark and you'll find what im talking about.
I got my tin foil hat on and walked back outside and collected some snow and put a lighter to it...
It burned like a foam. Never really catching fire. Just a very very slow burn that did turn brown.
Almost like when you burn Styrofoam, but much much slower. .
It never meltedNo water at all came from this experiment. The results of my test were exactly like the second example in the video.
If you're in this snow storm, gather some snow and take a lighter to it, and watch.
At this point I'm thinking, First the mystery fog.
Now it's burning snow.
I see that this is an old topic, but was wondering what my fellow rogues thought of this.
This is what I got from a quick search.
When you burn snow with a lighter, it does not melt in the traditional sense but rather undergoes a process called sublimation, where it transitions directly from a solid to a gas. The flame from a lighter is not intense enough to melt the snow into liquid water. Instead, the heat causes the snow to vaporize without passing through the liquid phase. Additionally, the soot from the lighter can accumulate on the snow’s surface, turning it black and giving the appearance that the snow is melting and burning. This black residue is not a result of the snow itself burning but rather the accumulation of unburnt fuel particles from the lighter.
Is this actually a thing?
So weird.
I just ran the same experiment with an ice cube from my refrigerator.
Similar results.
"Sublimation"
This ol Florida boy learned something about snow. Lol
Cheers
RE: Burning snow - F2d5thCav - 01-22-2025
And yet, if one holds snow in one's hand, it will melt. Not quickly, but it will melt. And a flame can't melt it? Hmm.
Cheers
RE: Burning snow - Ninurta - 01-22-2025
(01-22-2025, 05:53 PM)F2d5thCav Wrote: And yet, if one holds snow in one's hand, it will melt. Not quickly, but it will melt. And a flame can't melt it? Hmm.
Cheers
A flame provides "too much" heat. It converts the snow directly from solid to vapor (sublimation) without going through the intermediary step of "liquid" due to the influx of excessive heating calories. Holding the snow in one's hand provides a lower temperature, fewer heating calories, allowing the snow time to progress through that intermediary step.
Atmospheric pressure will also have an effect on whether show sublimates or melts. I have seen snow sublimate from the power of sunlight alone (about 1400 kcal/m^2) when the atmospheric pressure was too low to hold it in a liquid state before vaporization.
Snow is not actually burning unless you can see a flame emanating from it when you remove the heat source.
.
RE: Burning snow - FlickerOfLight - 01-22-2025
Yeah, I have to admit, this one stumped me for a minute last night.
Then some time late in the night I actually remembered learning this is elementary science class. Only we didn't have snow to try it on.
It was fun getting my science mind going again with this though.
For a second there I thought I'd uncovered something with engineered snow.
This also lead to some Synchronicity regarding some other, more important, areas of my life.
The concept of spiritual sublimation refers to the transformation of base energies or desires into higher, more refined states of consciousness. This idea is rooted in various spiritual traditions, including yoga, alchemy, and tantra.
In psychology, sublimation is a defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or desires are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behaviors. This process allows individuals to channel their energy into productive activities, such as artistic or scientific pursuits, rather than expressing them in ways that could be harmful or socially unacceptable.
Funny how that worked out for me. This process goes even deeper, but this post isn't about that.
To the one reading: Consider this a metaphor for something deeper.