snow flakes are one of mother nature’s
most exquisite creations fragile snow
crystals that dazzle us in an array of
shapes and sizes but there’s a lot more
to these intricate ice formations than
meets the eye
turns out that by looking a lot closer
snowflakes
may also help us save lives here’s
correspondent francesca Fiorentina’s
fascinating look at the secrets of
snowflakes beautiful and delicate but
also deadly it came out of nowhere when
you’re caught in an avalanche it’s
terrifying
most Avalanche deaths are caused by
suffocating under deep drifts or from
the blunt-force trauma inflicted by the
in fact these giant masses of snowflakes
can reach speeds of 80 miles per hour
within about 5 seconds imagine like
being in a car crash and you’re trying
to just like hopefully save yourself and
time runs against you after an hour has
passed only one in three of those hit by
an avalanche are found alive the threat
is so real that 150 people get killed by
these juggernauts around the world every
year in just a two-week span in February
2018 seven people died from avalanches
in one area of Washington State three of
them lost their lives on mountain passes
just like this one three people have
been killed in two separate avalanches
over the weekend rescuers found an adult
near Stampede pass in Kittitas County
yesterday these deadly incidents
illustrate the extreme risk not just in
the backcountry but even on the heavily
used trails that’s why I came here to
the shadow of Mount Rainier to meet the
Daredevils that stop these deadly beasts
before they strike so what’s strange is
that you all work for the Department of
Transportation
when I think of the d-o-t I don’t think
of avalanches I think of like a bus
depot right right yeah because you know
we have snowy mountain passes and in
avalanche hazard we we also have a
vilage specialists who are at lunch I
weigh a village forecasters state route
140 takes us up the mountain on the
shinik byway a 92 mile hotspot for
avalanches and this road turns out to be
one of the worst places an avalanche can
hit 30,000 vehicles a day and midweek we
have seven to ten thousand semis so
there’s a tremendous amount of people
moving across the highway but also a lot
of a lot of goods we finally make it two
Chinooks
actual mountain pass the snowiest
mountain pass that double usdot operates
it’s here where we find clues to the
formation of avalanches we have today’s
snowfall and we can look at this upper
layer you know that can pull off pretty
easily it’s sitting on this nice thin
little crust yes
it’s very fragile underneath that is
this really loose unconsolidated wet
snow yes as we move down it gets a
little more firm and again wetted snow
underneath there we can start to see
some additional layers so the fact that
there are different consistencies of
snow layers actually make the conditions
for an avalanche yep more likely more
likely exactly it’s not long before
John’s team finds a classic avalanche
trigger a cornice a mass of hardened
snow hanging precariously above the road
and you see that big overhanging piece
of snow that’s the cornice that we’re
looking at your concern is that it’s
going to fall in if it falls on its own
yet we hope to remove the cornice and
make that area safe
meaning exploded away exactly so the
crew if started setting up explosives in
that area you hold that Andy sure thank
you sir the demolition team has a tough
task they need to blow up the cornice
without rattling the surrounding area
alright ready for this I think so okay
oh yeah yeah so you can see this light
coming down now
there it goes whoa that was crazy that
moved really fast yeah that looked good
their work is crucial for people’s
safety and for the economy but what if
there was a better way to prevent
avalanches than hunting them down one by
well in order to understand avalanches
you first have to understand snowflakes
I’m here at Montana State University’s
sub-zero lab where researchers are at
the forefront of discovering science
behind snowflakes this 27 thousand
square foot facility is one of the
leading cold science research centers in
the world yeah okay no I get it I know
why it’s a sub-zero lab okay how cold is
it in here right now around minus 10
Celsius all the time all the time well
here in the center you can actually see
the crystals grow that is so cool so if
you put your glove behind may I take a
snowflake it’s beautiful lab director
dr. Edie Adams says there’s a lot more
to snowflakes than we think
snow is it’s kind of like a shapeshifter
snowflakes aren’t frozen raindrops they
form when water vapor and clouds skips
the liquid phase and crystallizes
straight into a solid there are at least
35 types of snowflakes
some are shaped like needles others are
dotted with ice granules and some are
irregular crystals even though all of
them fall at the same time when it comes
to forming avalanches the prettiest one
of them all can be the fastest to act
out the stellar dendrites those stellar
dendrites the star shaped crystals those
are like the beautiful sort of holiday
cars right snowflake exactly after they
hit the ground
then they go through this metamorphism
they tend to change form most snowflakes
generally have six arms formed by the
accumulation of water molecules two
hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom but
the stellar dendrites arms are
particularly unstable they more faster
than other snowflakes which can create a
continuous hard layer of snow that can
stretch across entire Mountain sites but
sometimes the snowflakes stay separate
creating a weak pillowy layer if another
hard layer is forged on top of this snow
pack the millions of snowflakes beneath
them have set the stage
one of the most deadly forces on earth
you’ve got a strong layer we’ve got a
little weak layer then we have a strong
layer on top of it
that’s your recipe for the avalanche by
studying the mechanics of a snowpack and
analyzing the snowflakes inside it dr.
Adams team is trying to improve
avalanche prediction in order to save
human lives ultimately what could your
research lead to could you imagine
something like a google maps of
avalanches in the next 15 20 years yes
certainly we can get closer to that one
day you might be able to browse an app
that tells you where the snow flakes to
avoid lie but until then Avalanche
hunters are gonna keep trudging into the
backcountry to try and understand and
prevent the next disaster so the next
time you see snow falling from the sky
just remember that these tiny crystals
are beautiful but also dangerous [Music]
most exquisite creations fragile snow
crystals that dazzle us in an array of
shapes and sizes but there’s a lot more
to these intricate ice formations than
meets the eye
turns out that by looking a lot closer
snowflakes
may also help us save lives here’s
correspondent francesca Fiorentina’s
fascinating look at the secrets of
snowflakes beautiful and delicate but
also deadly it came out of nowhere when
you’re caught in an avalanche it’s
terrifying
most Avalanche deaths are caused by
suffocating under deep drifts or from
the blunt-force trauma inflicted by the
in fact these giant masses of snowflakes
can reach speeds of 80 miles per hour
within about 5 seconds imagine like
being in a car crash and you’re trying
to just like hopefully save yourself and
time runs against you after an hour has
passed only one in three of those hit by
an avalanche are found alive the threat
is so real that 150 people get killed by
these juggernauts around the world every
year in just a two-week span in February
2018 seven people died from avalanches
in one area of Washington State three of
them lost their lives on mountain passes
just like this one three people have
been killed in two separate avalanches
over the weekend rescuers found an adult
near Stampede pass in Kittitas County
yesterday these deadly incidents
illustrate the extreme risk not just in
the backcountry but even on the heavily
used trails that’s why I came here to
the shadow of Mount Rainier to meet the
Daredevils that stop these deadly beasts
before they strike so what’s strange is
that you all work for the Department of
Transportation
when I think of the d-o-t I don’t think
of avalanches I think of like a bus
depot right right yeah because you know
we have snowy mountain passes and in
avalanche hazard we we also have a
vilage specialists who are at lunch I
weigh a village forecasters state route
140 takes us up the mountain on the
shinik byway a 92 mile hotspot for
avalanches and this road turns out to be
one of the worst places an avalanche can
hit 30,000 vehicles a day and midweek we
have seven to ten thousand semis so
there’s a tremendous amount of people
moving across the highway but also a lot
of a lot of goods we finally make it two
Chinooks
actual mountain pass the snowiest
mountain pass that double usdot operates
it’s here where we find clues to the
formation of avalanches we have today’s
snowfall and we can look at this upper
layer you know that can pull off pretty
easily it’s sitting on this nice thin
little crust yes
it’s very fragile underneath that is
this really loose unconsolidated wet
snow yes as we move down it gets a
little more firm and again wetted snow
underneath there we can start to see
some additional layers so the fact that
there are different consistencies of
snow layers actually make the conditions
for an avalanche yep more likely more
likely exactly it’s not long before
John’s team finds a classic avalanche
trigger a cornice a mass of hardened
snow hanging precariously above the road
and you see that big overhanging piece
of snow that’s the cornice that we’re
looking at your concern is that it’s
going to fall in if it falls on its own
yet we hope to remove the cornice and
make that area safe
meaning exploded away exactly so the
crew if started setting up explosives in
that area you hold that Andy sure thank
you sir the demolition team has a tough
task they need to blow up the cornice
without rattling the surrounding area
alright ready for this I think so okay
oh yeah yeah so you can see this light
coming down now
there it goes whoa that was crazy that
moved really fast yeah that looked good
their work is crucial for people’s
safety and for the economy but what if
there was a better way to prevent
avalanches than hunting them down one by
well in order to understand avalanches
you first have to understand snowflakes
I’m here at Montana State University’s
sub-zero lab where researchers are at
the forefront of discovering science
behind snowflakes this 27 thousand
square foot facility is one of the
leading cold science research centers in
the world yeah okay no I get it I know
why it’s a sub-zero lab okay how cold is
it in here right now around minus 10
Celsius all the time all the time well
here in the center you can actually see
the crystals grow that is so cool so if
you put your glove behind may I take a
snowflake it’s beautiful lab director
dr. Edie Adams says there’s a lot more
to snowflakes than we think
snow is it’s kind of like a shapeshifter
snowflakes aren’t frozen raindrops they
form when water vapor and clouds skips
the liquid phase and crystallizes
straight into a solid there are at least
35 types of snowflakes
some are shaped like needles others are
dotted with ice granules and some are
irregular crystals even though all of
them fall at the same time when it comes
to forming avalanches the prettiest one
of them all can be the fastest to act
out the stellar dendrites those stellar
dendrites the star shaped crystals those
are like the beautiful sort of holiday
cars right snowflake exactly after they
hit the ground
then they go through this metamorphism
they tend to change form most snowflakes
generally have six arms formed by the
accumulation of water molecules two
hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom but
the stellar dendrites arms are
particularly unstable they more faster
than other snowflakes which can create a
continuous hard layer of snow that can
stretch across entire Mountain sites but
sometimes the snowflakes stay separate
creating a weak pillowy layer if another
hard layer is forged on top of this snow
pack the millions of snowflakes beneath
them have set the stage
one of the most deadly forces on earth
you’ve got a strong layer we’ve got a
little weak layer then we have a strong
layer on top of it
that’s your recipe for the avalanche by
studying the mechanics of a snowpack and
analyzing the snowflakes inside it dr.
Adams team is trying to improve
avalanche prediction in order to save
human lives ultimately what could your
research lead to could you imagine
something like a google maps of
avalanches in the next 15 20 years yes
certainly we can get closer to that one
day you might be able to browse an app
that tells you where the snow flakes to
avoid lie but until then Avalanche
hunters are gonna keep trudging into the
backcountry to try and understand and
prevent the next disaster so the next
time you see snow falling from the sky
just remember that these tiny crystals
are beautiful but also dangerous [Music]
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