Snow and Professional Tax Software

We are taking a quick break from professional tax software to tell you about the most popular topic here in Iowa today – SNOW!

Here are 10 Fun Facts that you probably didn’t know about snow:

1. An average snowflake is made up of 180 billion molecules of water.
2. Around 12% of the Earth’s land surface is covered in permanent snow and ice.
3. Each year, an average of 105 snow-producing storms affect the continental United States. A typical storm will have a snow-producing lifetime of two to five days and will bring snow to portions of several states.
4. All snowflakes have six sides.
5. Rochester, New York is the snowiest large city in the U.S., averaging 94 inches of snow a year.
6. Chionophobia is a fear of snow. (stumped spellcheck on that one).
7. Snow is actually colorless. What little sunlight is absorbed by snow is absorbed uniformly over the wavelengths of visible light thus giving snow its white appearance.
8. People buy more cakes, cookies and candies than any other food when a blizzard is in the forecast. (Who wants to be stranded without these?)
9. A blizzard occurs when you can’t see for ¼ mile. The winds are always 35 miles an hour or more. The storm must last at least 3 hours to be classed as a blizzard. If any of these conditions are less, it is only a snowstorm.
10. The average snowflake falls at a speed of 3.1 miles per hour (5 kilometers).