Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1895 — Why a Snow Blanket is Warm [ARTICLE]

Why a Snow Blanket is Warm

South's Companion. The value of a mantle of snow in protecting vegetation in the fields in winter is fully understood in farming districts, and the cause of the protective effect of the snow is an interfeting subject'of scientific inquiry. In Germany, where no such subject is allowed to escape investigation, Dr. Abels has recently made some important observations on the thermal properties of snow. He has has found that the looser the snow the greater its power to protect the around beneath from the effects of ( external changes of temperature. - Snow generally offers about four times as much resistance to such ?hanges as a sheet of ice of the same thickness offers. TVhen' Show becomes closely packed, therefore, it is less effective as a protection to plant life than- when it lies loosely upon the surface. Other experiments show that while a blanket of snow protects the ground beneath from the chilling effects of the winter atmosphere, yet the surface of the snow itself, especially in clear weather, is colder than the air, so that snow tends to lower the temperature cf the atmosphere, and where broad areas of country or extensive mountain slopes are covered by it important climatic conditions may be produced by the influence of the snow. Prince Victor Napoleon is preparing a manifesto for France. This is about as important as the news that I. S. Coxey is preparing to run for President of the United States.