Fake, Chemical Snow that Won't Melt when Burnt: Facts

Story:

Fake snow has been falling all over the United States; it is “geo-engineered” or “plastic”.

Other Versions

Snow that won’t melt when burnt.

Analysis:

These messages, along with many videos claim to show that fake snow has been falling all over the United States, and it won’t melt when burnt – because it is “geo-engineered” or “plastic”, which is a part of government conspiracy against the general public.

About the Videos

Several demonstrations like the one shown in above video claim to show that the Snow falling in United States does not melt when burnt with a flame, cigarette lighter or blowtorch and also leaves black colored traces – suggesting that the snow burns like plastic, is not natural and contains chemicals (shown in below video). These videos come up with various titles like “fake snow,” “chemical snow,” “burning snow,” or “snow that won’t melt.”

The reason why these videos went viral and got much attention is the conspiracy theory that suggests government’s secret weather modification practices involving spraying of chemical agents in to the air (often called as Chemtrails).

Facts

The homemade demonstrations shown in the videos are real, but what is proposed is not a fact. The behavior of snow described in the videos is normal science. Steve Ackerman, a professor of oceanic and atmospheric sciences at the University of Wisconsin, simply attributes this behavior of snow to Sublimation.

whenever there is an interface of both water and air, either solid or liquid, there will be molecules attempting to leave the water. Additionally, the intense change that happens in temperatures when snow or ice is affected by something, such as a lighter, causes the solid to transfer to a vapor.

In other words, snow, which is more of air than water, when burnt with flame sources like a blowtorch, the frozen water is simply going to evaporate. A simple example of this is the fact that snow evaporates when thrown into a campfire. And as explained on this website, “the very loose fluffy structure of the snow wicks away the water, turning dry snow into wet snow, and eventually turning the snow into slush.” As far as the blackening of snow is concerned, it is the residue caused by the flame source, which is common with butane lighters, especially in case of incomplete combustion (when something does not burn outright). Again, the dirty chemical smell is from this residue of flame.

So the snow in the United States shown in the videos does melt when burnt and is natural; it cannot be seen melting sometimes because of the Sublimation process, where sudden heat converts it to vapor directly. When heated with flame, the water in the snow tends to collect to itself and is not generally seen melting.

About Weather Modification

According to popular conspiracy theory, the U.S. government is secretly spraying the skies with chemicals for nefarious purposes like mind control, population control, or global warming.

Few theorists believe that such Chemtrails are being used to prevent and slow down global warming. It is a fact that scientists have been studying on this phenomenon. The Geoengineering idea is to spray chemicals like sulfur particles into atmosphere and increase the amount of sunlight that is reflected back into space, as suggested in this 2009 Time article.

A 2013 article of Centre for Research on Globalization (Canada) mentions couple of such suggestions for weather modification in the years 1991 and 2009. Another article on the same website back in 2007 says that the U.S. government routinely conducts experiments on weather modification. The conspiracy theorists claim that the government agencies do not reveal these experiments because of their possible harmful side effects on humans and wildlife.