Is snow beneficial for anything?

To make us all slow down, stay indoors, cuddle up in front of the fire and appreciate the beauty of the world :o)

I imagine it serves the same purpose as rain. After all, it doesn’t have a choice if it comes down in a liquid, solid or gas. If an area doesn’t get much snow in winter then that area may suffer a drought in spring when there’s no snow to melt.

Yes snow supples most of the worlds water along with rain.

Bloody handy for snowboarding ;)

It insulates the ground, provides nitrogen and makes for great snowball fights.

“It insulates the ground” against what….cold? :)

Many species of plants (often the same ones that need the spring rain) require a dormant period of freezing cold to go through their natural growth cycles. Snow makes all that pretty while it happens. ;-)

@syphotoguy It insulates it from extremes of cold. Have you ever heard of winterkill? It’s when the ground doesn’t have a snow cover and the extreme cold, 20 below 0 F, for example, causes the ground to heave, the cold penetrates down and kills the vegetation. It occurs on farmers hay fields, golf courses, etc. A deep snow cover keeps the soil temperatures warmer than bare soil.

You learn something new everyday.

Yup – as many have said, it’s kind of like mulch.

Skiing or snowboarding.

Oh, and also snowball fights!

Yep, snow is an important water source.

Where I live in the Sierra Nevada foothills the ‘snowpack’ accumulated at the higher elevations during the winter season feeds our magnificent rivers and is important in helping reduce the forest fire dangers of dry summers.

Snow is also just plain beautiful!

It gives people something to bitch about regarding the weather.

It kills many of the insects that would normally infest the wood pile.

Snow is what gives winter its wonderland and snowmen their manhood.

There’s nothing sadder than some poor kid in Louisiana trying to make a mudman or one in Arizona trying to make a sandman to celebrate their “winters”. ;-(

Snow

Mountain snowpack is another form of reservoir for fresh water. The snow that falls in winter melts at a gradual rate all spring and summer and allows rivers to flow year-round. Without snow we’d have more flooding in winter and more extreme dry seasons, with rivers drying up completely due to lack of rainfall.

And snow in New England helps to weed out the weaklings who have to winter in the sun.

It eliminates the need to mow the lawn. Shoveling doesn’t have to be as neat or perfect.

Last Dec. 7th we had the snowstorm of the decade for being just at or a little below the average snowline.

20 inches overnight and the most amazing thing was standing in the silence at dawn and every 30 seconds you could hear tree limbs snapping and falling in the woods.

It was amazing!

I lost a huge limb that blocked my driveway and the power and phones were out for almost 3 days.

Melting snow to make coffee and stuffing the cats under the covers, reading by oil lamp…it was fun, for awhile. lol

Without snow you would be forced to make ‘mud angels’.

@mrentropy

Mud angels. haha

Over here you’d be making mud and manure angels.

Donkey dung and Llama poo. lol

Snowfall has a magical affect on a quiet day, it makes it even quieter and more peaceful.

It gives the weatherman something to talk about.

Snow is beneficial because it kills of a lot of animals so that the population doesn’t explode. Without snow and the cold season animals would breed year round and possibly become a problem for people.

@daytonamisticrip Never thought about that!

@daytonamisticrip I disagree :)

@Adirondackwannabe explained it well.

It stores the water that falls during the winter (in the form of snow) so that the spring melt restores the parched land.

According to my sources. snow will, in temperate climates, act to insulate the ground and the plants and animals in it.

Snow in the UK causes mayhem on the roads.. which doesn’t sound very beneficial… but for me it usually means a few days off work and some precious time with my daughter.. snowball fights, snowmen and sledging!! VERY BENIFICIAL and RELAXING!!

Sorry but I just gotta to do this:

Snow is (ugh, ahh) ,... snow is good for -

Absolutely nothing.

(There, I feel better now.)

@janbb I agree when I have to be anywhere near it, but it makes for a very scenic view

We get most of our electricity from dams so we need rivers. Without snow in the mountains our rivers would dry up in the summer. So we would have to do something shitty like burn coal for electricity.

It’s beautiful.

When I was a kid we had a big back yard. The people next door had an electric lamp post in their backyard that looked like the old gas ones. One night it was snowing and I went to the back door for the ritual “close school” prayer and, with the woods out back, the snow, and that lamp post lit I thought “Totally Narnia.”

Couldn’t have that without snow.

Because without it we wouldn’t have—couldn’t have

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I love the squeaky sound of snow under my boots, that tingly feeling as warmth returns to your body when you go back inside, the excuse to eat comfort foods (along with the forgiving shapes of sweaters and snowpants), the way people drive carefully on the side streets watching out for each other (once they boot the program and remember how), laughing at my dog bounding after a snowball and not finding it, skiing on fresh powder, taking a weather-day to go sledding…
you can bet good money, I’ll be changing my tune come February

I always find it funny when people complain about the weather.
As if it is something personal.

’ Ooooh it’s raining, I hate the rain, snow, wind’, fill in the blanks lol

Rain and snow keep our planet alive and cycling in ways that keep us alive.

I never complain about the weather.

The epitomy of self importance. haha

@Coloma Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.

@mrentropy

Right, well..not much ego can do but complain. lol

Without snow, we would never have a “White Christmas“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUbU5hD0rrM

To get me out of school for two weeks. :]
Happened twice last year

@amazingme In Virginia?

@Dr_Dredd I was surprised to find out that there is snow in Virginia, and even ski resorts. Who knew?

@Dr_Dredd Yep. There was basically no point in having any sort of school plan for the month of February.

Water storage capability.

Increasing albedo and thereby cooling the planet.

Wow… snowing big time in the deep South! Beneficial…ummm.. makes me feel good!

The snow is hitting everywhere around me, but not me! And if it does, it’s only a small amount! I want another snowstorm like last year to get me out of my senior year! :]