Weatherman Des Coleman: How is snow made?

Well well well it's started to snow and as I speak it's getting heavier.

It’s mainly forecast for the far north towards the Staffordshire hills and the Peak District but as I've said it will fall to lower levels too and looking out of the window here it is!

You may know that all air contains water vapour - even desert air - and when it's cold enough or when rain meets the cold air ice crystals form high In the atmosphere.

They swirl around bumping into each other -as if there isn’t enough space up there already- and they stick together like the opposite sides of a magnet forever tuned in to a continuous attraction. Much like flamingoes who actually mate for life.

As the ice crystals grow larger and can’t be supported by the air, gravity takes over and they fall gently to earth. Which reminds me of Lee Majors AKA The Bionic man... We can rebuild him, we have the technology. He wasn’t as graceful when it came to landing his spaceship and when you think about it if he was then we wouldn’t have had the series... Anyway, I digress.

Snow then takes on a Jeckyell and Hyde pseudonym as it splits into 2 personalities. One becoming wet the other becoming dry - I doubt whether we’d get a musical out of that idea - There's a musical of Jekyell and Hyde written by the fabulous Cy Coleman and the late Leslie Bricusse (I sang the main song in The Grand Opera House in Ireland a few years back). Anyway... Wet builds snowmen and dry is great for skiing.

Weatherwise an occlusion brings a little more organisation to the showers making some more persistent but they’ll tend to break up later in the day.

PS: Remember Remember the snow and ice warning. That’s for the far north of our patch. Drive carefully in your car. Or you won’t get far.

Keep smiling folks!