# Snow Isn't White. Here's What's Actually Happening.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/smile-with-daniel-7904799/snow-isn-t-white-here-s-what-s-actually-happening
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/smile-with-daniel-7904799/snow-isn-t-white-here-s-what-s-actually-happening.md
Podcast: [Smile with Daniel](https://stenobird.com/podcast/smile-with-daniel-7904799)
Published: 2026-07-21T20:27:04+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.com/podcasts/smile-with-daniel/3010667
Audio file: https://content.rss.com/episodes/390398/3010667/smile-with-daniel/2026_07_21_20_27_00_51487b7d-fa03-45d3-925b-ca3efa65c9b6.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/smile-with-daniel-7904799/episodes/snow-isn-t-white-here-s-what-s-actually-happening
Duration seconds: 491

## Resource

Daniel looks out the window at snow and asks why it's white. Water isn't white. Ice isn't really white. So why is snow? The answer starts with a correction. A single ice crystal is transparent. See-through, like glass. Light passes right through it. So a snowflake -- which is essentially a tiny, complex ice crystal -- isn't white either. But when millions of them pile up together, something happens. Light enters the snow, hits a surface, and bounces. Then hits another surface, and bounces again. And again. After bouncing over and over through all those crystals and air pockets, it comes back out in every direction at once. And sunlight contains all the colors -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet -- all mixed together. Snow scatters all of those colors equally. When all the colors reach your eye at once, that is what we see as white. Snow doesn't have a white pigment. It looks white because of what it does to light. It is showing you whatever light hits it. Which is why deep snow and glaciers can look blue. The further light travels through ice before bouncing back out, the more red light gets absorbed along the way -- leaving more blue. And at sunrise or sunset, snow can look pink or orange, because the incoming light is those colors. The snow just shows you what it receives. And fresh snow on a sunny day can be almost painful to look at. Because snow reflects a tremendous amount of sunlight -- including ultraviolet light. Without sunglasses, that reflected UV can damage the surface of your eyes. Snow blindness is real. Most people don't think about needing sunglasses in snow -- but the reflection makes it more important, not less. Then Daniel asks the question that opens the second half of the episode. If snow is white because it reflects light -- mirrors also…

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## Transcript

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