2021 brings us ‘snow deniers’ who claim that Storm Filomena is not real

WE have already seen the Covid deniers’ theories over the past months, but who could have imagined that there would be ‘snow deniers’?

Videos of people claiming that the snow fallen all over Spain is not real and doesn’t melt have inundated social media, after one woman started the rumour.

In the videos, they take balls of snow and use a lighter to attempt to melt them, but instead of obtaining water, all that happens is that the snow goes black.

This has led deniers to claim that the snow brought by Storm Filomena is not a natural phenomenon, and they accuse chemtrails for the weather and snow. Some have even said that the snow is plastic.

Mar Gomez, a Doctor in Physics and Meteorologist has explained on Twitter that when a flame is applied to snow, it doesn’t melt, it turns straight into gas.

Biologist Alvaro Bayon, also explained on Twitter that “Water, even when frozen, contains heat. If the ball of snow is pressed, the air between the flakes is eliminated, and the ice is in contact with more ice. If you apply a flame to a single point, most of that heat will spread to the rest of the mass of ice, without melting it, due to the heat.” “Where the flame touches the ice” he explains, “the ice goes from a very low temperature to a very high one is undergoes a process called sublimation, and goes from solid to vapour without taking on a liquid state in between”. The little liquid that does form, is absorbed by the rest of the ice and freezes again.

Meanwhile, the “burned plastic” smell that the viral videos speak of, is because the fuel in the lighter does not burn completely and as it contains impurities, it forms soot, Gomez and Bayon both explained.

The Spanish Meteorological Agency, Aemet, has also explained why the snow doesn’t melt.

Anyone who wants to do the definitive test can leave the snow at room temperature or heat it in a microwave.

Repetimos el "experimento" en Izaña con nieve pura de Filomena, y obtuvimos lo mismo: al aplicar calor a una bola de nieve con un mechero no se veían caer gotas de agua y la bola se ennegrecía. Cuál es la explicación real? pic.twitter.com/Wcxkfq1wfc

— AEMET_Izaña (@AEMET_Izana) January 11, 2021

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