Explanation: You’ve been watching too many youtube videos.
Confirmation bias.
I would try that with some of our snow in NW Arkansas a couple of weeks ago, but it has all melted.
What does your Common Sense tell you?
Regards,
Stupid Obama voters.
The snow turns to liquid water and boils off as steam, which is invisible.
The black residue is the incomplete combustion of the butane in the lighter.
OR
The white material isn’t snow.
leave it to a bunch of southerners to try to light snow on fire lol!
It takes a thousand BTUs to melt create steam from water. Even more from snow...
Whereas a butane flame (yellow) contains a lot of carbon. and will turn to a black residue black when directed at something cold.
Put some distilled water in your freezer and freeze it, and the same thing will happen with a butane flame...
Soot. Use a blowtorch.
Finally, what may be the least complicated explanation is the smell that people are experiencing during the experiment.
The smell is likely coming from the fumes from the butane in the lighter. If you've ever used a lighter before, you can smell the chemicals.
As a meteorologist, the idea of modified snow is quite silly.
This wasn't a government "test" to see how people would react to snow, nor were the clouds "seeded" to produce snow in places that don't normally get it.
Despite its pure, white color, snow is anything from pure, especially because of pollution. But even with the trace chemicals snow absorbs as it falls through the atmosphere, it isn't supernatural. http://www.wdbj7.com/weather/why-this-weeks-snow-wasnt-normal/-/20128370/24210298/-/ubbcty/-/index.html
Incomplete combustion.
That creosote in the fireplace? The match is the same combustion process.
The butane in the lighter? You’re likely using a cheap lighter like the video? Only highly-refined lighter fluid burns clean enough to not produce anything but carbon dioxide & water vapor. A Bic lighter contains waste oils, as do the cheap refills for refillable lighters (the refills that ruin the expensive lighters).
This really is academic: Take a drinking glass or coffee mug, place the lighter under it until you see soot. What’s it smell like? The snow has a lot more surface area to capture the waste byproduct & soot. Hence the effect.
(where I come from we pass the joint to the left...I must’ve come in on your right, as I’m taking this far too seriously)
Lotsa snow up here. I’ll check it out.
Chemtrail residue in the snow, nothing at all to worry about.
Things that make you go Hmmmmmm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3117575/posts
what say you now you disbelievers first geoengineered snow now BIG HEADED FISH!
In This Thread: Southerners who don’t know how snow works.
“Snow” on the ground is mostly air. This is why it’s such a good insulator when you build a survival “snow cave”. So when you apply a low-temp flame to it (such as a match or lighter), very little of the snow actually melts, the rest being protected by the air spaces trapped in the flakes. The “blackening” is the soot produced by the lighter/match collecting on the extensive surface area of the snow (which also acts as a radiator to further retard melting). The smell is either combustion byproducts trapped in the snow, or pollution.
Also, even if you melt the whole clump, you’re going to get a “lot less” water than you expect, again because snow is mostly air. One inch of rain equivalent produces over ten inches of snow. So a tiny handful like that is barely going to produce a teaspoon of water, maybe less depending on how “dry” the snow is.
That is the stuffing from a pillow....or something ....
It's not snow...lol
Dangit! Y’all got me doing it.
Yes, it turned black, but I think it’s just because I used a butane lighter.
No, it didn’t melt, but I think that it’s because the liquid is absorbed into the snow, even at an angle.
And, I did taste it. Pretty nasty. My dog didn’t want to nose-dive into it tonight, either.
Did this years ago during my reckless youth. Same result.
Butane lighter, right?
Butane produces a sooty smoke. Try holding the flame under a steel item (a table knife will do). You will see the soot layer form quickly.
So, with your snow, you get the soot layering onto the snow (which doesn’t melt as fast with a point source as you might expect), and then the smell of the soot more or less cooking as you continue heating it.
Suggestion for a more realistic test for “fake” or contaminated snow: in a medium saucepan, place a small amount of water, just enough to cover the bottom (this to prevent damage to the pan— if it’s an old pan you don’t care about, skip that bit), place your snow sample— up to the capacity of the pan, and put over a low heat until melting start, and then up to high heat until it comes to a boil with steam etc. Best to use electric range if possible, to prevent any odor bias from a gas or propane burner.
If the steam is stinky or a residue forms in the pan, then alert us. Alex Jones might also be interested.
Personal non-asset-backed wager: the snow is made of very cold water, with nothing more in it than you would find in rainwater.
d:^) get some sleep, y'all .. lol