Boffins to reveal snow secrets

Ali Powell • Published 20 Jan 2010 19:30 0 Comments

SCIENTISTS at Reading University will be on television next week - revealing that a one degree Celsius difference was all it took to cause the recent heavy snowfalls.

Britain's Big Freeze, on Channel 4 on Monday, will look at the causes and effects of this winter's snowfalls.

Professors Anthony Illingworth and Geoff Mitchell explain the science behind the snowfalls and the research used to improve future weather forecasting.

Prof Illingworth said: "At one degree above freezing, snow will not form, but in the right conditions, at freezing point, it will," he said. "Our records, which date back to 1920, show that in terms of depth this has been the worse snowfall ever in Reading - we recorded 27cms."

Prof Mitchell, Director of the University's Centre for Advanced Microscopy, used the powerful environmental scanning electron microscope to examine the make-up of the ice crystals that form snow.

He said: "The most striking image is just how little space is occupied by the ice crystals. Fresh snow only contains about 8% water, the rest is air. The images show there is a wide variety of shapes and sizes of ice crystals whose make-up is determined by the temperature and humidity conditions at the time."

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