What's interesting about snow? White, cold, and creates a lot of problems. But it turns out that these frozen droplets of water contain a lot of interesting things. 
There is an opinion that all snowflakes are unique and not one is like the other, but this is not so. In 1988, identical snowflakes from a snowstorm in Wisconsin were documented in Colorado.
There is no absolute classification of different types of snowflakes yet. Scientists have not yet come to a final conclusion about how many types of snow crystals are found in nature, but there is already a fairly accurate classification of snowflakes. 
Californian professor Ken Liebrech's "Field Guide to Snowflakes" describes 35 species in detail. Japanese expert on the physics of atmospheric ice Ukihiro Nakaya believes that there are at least 41 types of snowflakes. And meteorologists K. Magono and K. Lee even claim that there are 80 types of snowflakes.
Snow is a mineral 
Scientists from The National Snow & Ice Data Center came to a very interesting conclusion. They classified snow as a mineral. After all, a mineral is a naturally occurring homogeneous solid substance of inorganic origin with a certain chemical composition and an ordered arrangement of atoms.
Snow comes in different colors 
Yellow and black snow are not worth remembering. Red and even green snow is found in nature. The Taylor Glacier in Antarctica contains a lot of iron. As it oxidizes, it mixes with water and when it freezes, red snow forms. It turns green when microscopic algae enter the flowering phase.
The biggest snowflake 
It’s beautiful when large snow flakes quietly fall from the sky. In calm weather, snowflakes adhere to each other into fluffy plates and fall to the ground. In 1887, one such “snowflake” seriously impressed its owner at Fort Keogh in the US state of Montana. It was 38.1 cm in diameter and 20.3 cm in thickness. But since there is no photograph of this giant, scientists believe that, most likely, the farmer saw just a cluster of small snowflakes, and not one huge crystal.
Snow absorbs sounds 
Have you noticed that when it snows, there is amazing silence outside? The fact is that snow really absorbs sound. Sound waves hitting a layer of snow are not reflected from it as well as, for example, from a solid, homogeneous surface, and some of them are absorbed by the snow cover. But as soon as the snow settles, the number of air cells will immediately decrease, and sound can be better reflected from the surface.
How many names are there for snow? 
It would seem that snow is snow, but for the inhabitants of the Far North this is an important part of their life and they did not skimp, coming up with different words for the solid state of water. Anthropologist Igor Krupnik, having studied the vocabulary of almost 10 dialects of the Intuit and Yupik groups, counted 40 snow terms, in the Eskimo dialect of the Canadian region of Nunavik - 53. For the Inupiaq dialect in Alaska, almost 70 words denoting ice were recorded. According to Norwegian linguist Ole Henrik Magg, the Sami living in northern Scandinavia have at least 180 words for snow and ice.
The snowiest country 
Japan receives the most snow. The average height of snow cover in some settlements of this country, located in the mountains, is about 18 meters.
Snow in the Sahara
Snow is not that uncommon in this desert. Over the past 42 years, snow has fallen there for the fourth time. And this despite the fact that the average temperature in January here is about +14 °C. Eyewitnesses say that snow in the desert is very beautiful.
Snowball fight
When there's a ton of snow, it's time to have a snowball fight! Did you know that in 2013 there was a massive snow massacre on the planet? 5,834 people gathered on the streets of Seattle, America, and threw snow shells at each other for half an hour. By the way, for this battle several tens of tons of snow were brought from the nearby mountains. The event was a paid event, with proceeds of $40,000 going to support a local youth club.
But already in 2016, this record was broken by residents of Canada. On January 31, 7,681 people had already gathered in Saskatoon. The battle was truly enormous.
Snow fortress and giant snowman
Residents of Austria don’t really like playing snowballs, but making snowmen is a big deal! They hold the world record for the largest snowman. In 2019, they spent about 60 thousand euros to create this snow monster. This figure, 38 meters high, required 800 tons of snow.
But the record for the snow castle belongs to China. In 2016, a unique masterpiece was created in Beijing. The height of the castle reached 51 meters and it was built in the Baroque and Gothic style.
The construction of the sculpture, which unfolded over an area of 2800 square meters, took 35 thousand cubic meters of snow.
The biggest igloo
Another record was broken in 2016, but this time in Switzerland. A team of 14 people created a giant igloo with a diameter of 12.9 m and a height of 9.92 m. It took 1,400 snow blocks to build.
There is a fear of snow
Not all people love snow; there is a very interesting type of snow phobia - chionophobia. Chionophobia is not just a dislike of snow or a rational fear of severe weather forecasts. This is an unconscious fear of death or bodily harm due to snow.
Fear of snow can arise from childhood snow-related injuries, being hit hard by a snowball, being involved in a snow-related accident, or being surrounded by snow in a life-threatening manner.
Snow blindness
This is no longer a psychological problem, but a real problem faced by climbers, fishermen, skiers, and polar station workers. This is mainly caused by light reflected from snow, ice or light sand. Snow and ice reflect more than 80% of light.
The indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic approached this problem very creatively and wore such glasses. They made two narrow cuts through which people could see.
So wearing sunglasses is a necessary measure in conditions of being outside for a long time in snowy winter.
