"One of the fundamental messages instilled in us since birth is Do
Not Eat Colored Snow. But what if it tastes like watermelon?
In the alpine regions of Colorado it is not uncommon to find pink
snow falling in the mountains. What a surprise to open your door,
walk outside and find the ground covered in snow cone. Looks good
enough to eat I suppose, though I dont think I would be the brave
soul to try it.
The pink hue is caused by an algae called chlamydomonas nivalis.
Locals call it Watermelon Snow because it actually has a taste
very similar to watermelon. The snow (and the algae) is safe to
eat, atleast in reasonable quantities. Some algae can be slightly
toxic, and eating too much may result in pink diarrhea.
It is pretty unbelievable that snow would fall from the sky colored
pink, and even more unbelievable that it would be safe to eat and
taste like watermelon. An excerpt from a recent Wowozanga article
explains some of the scientific reasoning behind this.
There are actually more than 350 kinds of algae that survive in
very cold temperatures. These algae can turn the snow black, brown
or yellow (just dont confuse this with the OTHER yellow snow),
too. Chlamydomonas nivalis tends to flourish when the weather
warms up a little after the darkest, coldest part of winter. It
starts out green, then turns pink or reddish as the weather
brightens. The cells have a gelatinous sheath that protect them
from the strong ultraviolet radiation at high altitudes (at 12,000
feet / 3,7 kilometers on the above photo), and this sheath is what
produces the pink color.
Another pink snow incident recently appeared when certain parts of
Russias Maritime territory were coated with pink snow. This
follows a yellow snowfall last month caused by pollution or
possibly volcanic activity. Meteorologists suggest that the pink
tint comes from Mongolian sand. To quote Mos News: Before it
arrived in Maritime, the cyclone passed Mongolia, where sand storms
had been raging in the desert. The winds of the cyclone embraced
dust particles that colored the fallouts, the experts said."
