BOB DOUGHTY: Sometimes, snow comes earlier than normal. And sometimes it falls in areas that are not known for having snow. In early December, ice and heavy snow caused officials in Paris to close its main airport and the Eiffel Tower. It was the heaviest snowfall in the French capital has received in years.
Snow also fell in other parts of Europe. Scotland received its heaviest snowfall since nineteen sixty-three. A combination of snow, rain and freezing conditions caused traffic problems in Germany. There were hundreds of accidents nationwide. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, most of them at the Frankfurt airport.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Each year, the continental United States has an average of one hundred five snowstorms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days.
Almost every part of the United States has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida, where many Americans go for warm-weather vacations, have reported a few snowflakes.
The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in the winter of nineteen ninety-eight to nineteen ninety-nine. Two thousand eight hundred ninety-five centimeters of snow fell at the Mount Baker Ski area in the northwestern state of Washington.
BOB DOUGHTY: People in many areas have little or no snowfall. In 1936, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. Then, during the 1940s, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals. Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter ski areas when not enough natural snow has fallen.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25