Even with all of our fancy technology, snow is still hard to predict and measure; but what knowledge we do know I'll try to pass on here. See
Snowflake for a more in-depth description on the flakes themselves.
Snow is a general term referring to a conglameration of
Snowflakes, either resting on the ground, falling from the sky, or crunched up into a
ball. It is also the name of a musical artist (
quite the flake indeed) and the title of countless poems.
High density snow is referred to as
Firn if it is older than one year old; see the
Firn node for specifics on that topic (thanks,
ailie).
It has been (falsely) reported that
Eskimos have one hundred names for snow - but you can easily see why when skiers started bringing new names for snow into popular culture. Some of the more frequently heard ones are "
fluffy snow," "
powder snow," and "
sticky snow." As things needed a bit more clarification, even more terms came up; including "
champagne powder," "
corduroy," (snow groomed into hard ridges) and "
mashed potatoes."
Did you know that snow is an excellent insulator? Well it is! "
Ten inches of fresh snow with a density of 0.07 inches, seven percent water, is approximately equal to a six-inch-layer of fiberglass insulation with an insulation R-value of R-18." - source: nsdic.org
As beautiful as it is, snow kills thousands of people per year. The "most popular" ways to die due to the winter wonderland are from
traffic accidents,
overexertion, and
exposure. Only recently have
avalanche deaths been a more popular option, probably due to the increase in expeditions and climbing excursions, extreme winter sports, and just the general increase in population.
Weirdness: The greatest snowfall reported in
Phoenix, Arizona was one inch. One measly little inch. It happened twice, even! The first time was
January 20, 1933, and the second time it happened again
four years later on the same date.
Sources: nsidc.org, meteorology class, caltech.edu.