It's cold outside! Here are some fun facts about Winter!

Did you know?

1. Every winter, at least one septillion (that's 1 followed by 24 zeros) snow crystals fall from the sky. 

2. Winter cold kills more than twice as many Americans as summer heat does so bundle up!

3. While it seems counterintuitive, Earth is actually closest to the sun in December, even though winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. 

4. According to the Guiness World Records, on January 28, 1887, a snowflake 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick fell in Fort Keogh, Montana, making it the largest snowflake ever observed. 

5. Snow apprears white because snow is a bunch of individual ice crystals arranged together. When light hits snow, it bounces all around the ice crystals and the "color" of all the frequencies in the visible spectrum combined in equal measure is white. While white is the color we see in snow, individual ice crystals are actually transparent. 

6. The most snow ever recorded in 24 hours in the United States was at Silver Lake, Colorade, in 1921 at 76 inches. Coming is second is Georgetown, Colorado, in December of 1913, at 63 inches. 

For fun! 

We hope you liked these fun facts! 

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