If snow is just frozen rain, then why isn't it clear?

Question

Snow is white and I thought ice was clear.

Answer 1

Snow is composed of ice crystals that make the white color.

Answer 2

Is Snow Frozen Rain

Answer 3

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Possibly, depending on the temperature and coeficient of slush-ocity, if it mostly snow and the ground temp is well below freezing and it gets run over enough times, it will pack down and get quite slippery, but people usually see this layer and (hopefully) slow dowm. The worst ice problems are when the ground temperature is well below freezing and there is a warm (above freezing) layer of air aloft. Rain falls from the warmer layer and hits the roads as liquid, then freezes after it has landed, so it makes a very smooth and hard to see ice coating on the roads. This is what they call "black ice". Actually, the ice isn't really black, the ice coating is clear and you see the blacktop right through it. It is so dangerous because people don't know it is there and keep on driving full spped, then when they try to stop or turn, they suddenly discover that the coeficient of friction is aproximatly zero! If the rain falls through a thicker layer of cold air before it gets to the ground, you get ice pellets or pellets with a little freezing rain, this forms a whitish coating on the roads that is easy to see and not as slippery but still dangerous if you are not careful.

Answer 4

Frozen Rain Is Called

Answer 5

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RE:
If snow is just frozen rain, then why isn't it clear?
Snow is white and I thought ice was clear.

Answer 6

The ice in snow is clear. You can only see through clear things if the surfaces are smooth. If the surfaces are rough (like frosted glass) you can't see through them, the light gets scattered. The rougher they are, the more the light gets scattered - think diamonds where you can see reflections back to you, due to lots of faces internally reflecting the light.

The ice in snowflakes is really rough, so a lot of light is reflected back to you. Light is white, so snow looks white. If you had green light, you'd see green snow. If the tiny ice crystals weren't clear, the snow would look dark due to some light being absorbed and not reflected back.

Answer 7

Snow is NOT frozen rain, sleet is. Snow is produced by a process known as sublimation, where water vapor (the gas state of water) goes directly to a solid state, as opposed to a liquid state. Frost is produced in a similar fashion. This process causes the vapor to crystallize, with it's resultant whitish color.

Answer 8

Lead based paint. Don't eat snow.

The white color come from the scattering of light through the snowflake crystal. Salt from a salt shaker looks white but if you buy rock salt which is impure larger crystals of salt, you will notice the crystals that are pure are clear. The same thing happens with snowflakes. The light get scattered by the crystal so it looks white.

Or the snow fairies when they make the snowflake make it white by a flick of their little wands.

Answer 9

Water can not make the transition from a gas to a liquid unless dust is present. As you are well aware of that all matter exist in one of three states, Solid, Liquid or Gas. Matter is listed by atomic weight on/in the Periodic Table. Hydrogen and Oxygen are both gaseous here on Earth. In order for the elements to bond they must be electrified and this energy is found in the magnetic field of the dust particle. All magnets attract or repel and in the formation of water we have the attraction of 1 atom of Hydrogen and 2 atoms of Oxygen. This it a trinity and like the magnet is the relation ship of the negative and the positive. The power of AND is antimatter which is energy without mass. To simplify your answer is that the union of many particles of dust are in an unbalanced state in that the dust overwhelms the liquid state of water and in so doing it is not pure resulting in the opaque appearance.

Answer 10

3rd time im putting this explanation up haha

ice is not transparent its translucent so when a beam of light hits it the impurities that the rain latched onto that its frozen now refract White light making it white, same reason the impurities in the center of an ice cube is white.