The meaning of ‘silence of snow’

Grandma always said that snow was healthy.

Growing up, I loved snow because it was fun. Depending on the type of snow, I would spend hours either building a snowman, tobogganing, or just making snow angels across the front lawn.

As the glorious sound of children laughing and playing subsides, have you ever noticed the haunting quiet that settles across the new blanket of white?

There is a scientific reason behind the calming silence, with the characteristics of snow playing a big role in how sound can travel.

When light, fluffy snow accumulates on the ground, it acts as a sound absorber, dampening sound waves much like commercial sound-absorbing products. Dry, fluffy snow is porous, and typically porous materials, such as fibres and foams, absorb sound quite well.

Sound absorption is measured on a scale from zero to one. Based on previous measurements, sound absorption for snow is between 0.5 to 0.9: that implies a good amount of sound is being absorbed.

It usually takes a good blanket of snow to make a difference, but a few centimetres can be reasonably absorbing. However, as the structure of snow changes, the amount of noise in the surrounding environment increases. When the snow surface melts and refreezes, it becomes hard and reflects sound waves, causing sounds to travel farther and become clearer.