Re: The color of snow

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> Leigh, are you referring to "white-out?" The conditions you describe
> seem to be those that give rise to white-out conditions, but if so,
> your comments below confuse me.

I'm talking about the conditions after the snow has ceased falling.
The illusion might be present in such a whiteout condition, I
suppose, but it is more striking when the conditions seem ordinary.
The presence of hints of shadow doesn't seem to destroy it.

Lots of people on this list, perhaps the majority of them, live in
places where snow falls and sticks. It even happened once in my
native Los Angeles, back about 1951, and I've heard it has happened
since. If it is rare, go from LA up to Chileo (?) Flats, the first
place I ever played in the snow, back in my early kidhood.

Your experience in whiteout conditions was much more frightening
than mine, which I've only had while skiing. Winter was a marvelous
new world for this lifetime Californian when I emigrated from
Berkeley to British Columbia at the age of 31. There is all sorts
of new physics to be experienced! Ice worms extruded from the soil.
Spikes growing out of tubs of water. The chirp of the hockey stick
slapped on the ice 100 meters away on the lake. The anechoic nature
of a fluffy snowfall. The fairyland of iced trees in the morning
light. Many colorful atmospheric halo displays. The aurora. Etc.

I've never had reason to regret moving to British Columbia.

Leigh