Surprising Benefits of Snow

If there’s anyone who follows my social media during winter, it’s no secret that I am a big fan of snow. I love the transformation it makes to the places I regularly experience and the uniformity it creates to the visual environment. It is especially beautiful when there is a first snowfall as it provides a sense of surprise in its beauty. A new snowfall always seems to feel like a soft white blanket covering and quieting the world. I also love the idea that every individual snowflake is unique and that there are no two alike. Looking at the microphotographs of snow is quite amazing because we begin to see nature’s design that is otherwise not visible to the naked eye. The geometry and symmetry of each snowflake seems so perfect in each iteration.

Many people dread the winter and the snowfall that comes with it, especially when it is extremely heavy and piles up too quickly as it can cause many challenges. Shoveling snow to create walk paths and scraping the snow off of vehicles can become onerous tasks if they occur frequently. Super heavy snowfall requires rapid response plowing and systems in place to keep streets clear and societal mobility intact. Unfortunately, with super rapid snow accumulation, it may not be possible for our systems to maintain proper functioning. In these cases, people’s lives are in danger, just as they would also be if mountain climbers find themselves stranded or lost in a heavy snowstorm or blizzard.

As long as we aren’t dealing with the treacherous type of snowstorm, there are numerous benefits that a winter snowfall can bring us. When you are a child, you might look forward to snow-days that relieve you from attending school. I remember having the opportunity to meet up with friends in the neighborhood on snow-days and doing super fun things like sledding down steep snow-covered hills and making snow sculptures. As an adult, you also might receive a snow-day away from the office. The silence that a snowfall brings to otherwise noisy city life can be renewing and allows us to step back for a moment and take a deep breath away from the daily hustle.

Snow also has environmental properties that can benefit our homes! For one, as snow piles up on a rooftop and the ground it actually begins to create an additional insulation layer. It is counterintuitive, but a layer of snow on a roof that is more than one-inch thick can help to retain the heat and warmth inside and around the foundations of your house. The R-value (heat resistance value) of snow is around R-1 per inch, so six-inches of snow could add a temporary R-6 insulation layer to your roof system! Think about the igloos of indigenous people in Alaska and how the snow provided the material for making building blocks and forming the dome-like structures for dwelling. The interior of igloos would begin to form a thin layer of ice when the inner fire-pits would ignite, helping to solidify the integrity of the structure. The thick blocks of snow create a barrier from the cold outdoor temperatures and wind and prevent the interior heat from escaping the compact space.

Other vernacular building types express a different approach to snowfall when we find steep slope roofs on houses where snow might be frequent. In these cases, the intention is to eventually shed the snow off of the building structure when outdoor temperatures begin to warm up. In these scenarios, the hazards of snow and ice shedding off of the roof structure have to be considered and snow guards should be integrated into the roofing system. Snow guards are small metal angles that project out from the roof’s surface to retain banks of snow that begin to accumulate and will prevent large sheets of snow or ice from sliding off the roof all at once. This also helps to prevent large cave-ins of the roof structure by eliminating the build-up of ice-dams that occur during freeze-thaw cycles. Even with relatively steep sloped roofs there is snow that can accumulate and still provide some insulating benefits. However, some structures may be designed with extremely steep roofs, which in effect also become the walls of the building (think ski lodges) to prevent the additional weight and load of snow from accumulating upon the structure.

Snow also increases the amount of natural daylight in the immediate environment that we experience due to its reflectance properties. Light and radiation readily bounce off of the surface of snow and are redirected upwards. When there is snow on the ground outside of windows in your house, there is additional light (as well as a little additional heat in the form of radiation) that will bounce in through the window as it reflects off the snow. This is beneficial to our well-being as in most northern climates we will suffer from daylight deficiencies in the winters.

Ultimately, a good amount of snowfall in the mountains of any region is beneficial to the ecosystem come spring time. The snowmelt season is one of the key predictors for the amount of annual groundwater that will replenish. Runoff from snowmelt is one of the major factors contributing to the global water cycle and makes up to 75 percent of the water resources in western states according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). So even if you are not living in a location with snowy winters, there is a good chance that your water resources originate from  snowmelt. When winter has passed and we enter the spring season, we can still celebrate snow as we receive renewed freshwater sources for the year to come.

Finally, snow provides for celebratory cultural events in many places around the world. Snow festivals are prevalent in places like Sapporo, Japan and Hwacheon, South Korea, but there are thousands of other winter festivals that celebrate snow. Fascinating snow and ice sculptures and full-scale structures can be experienced at these festivals. There are also snow and ice hotels in some Nordic places that invite artists and designers to craft and make unique spatial structures for inhabitation by visitors. It is one of my dreams to visit the ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden and perhaps be one of the artisans to design and construct a room there one year.

If you are interested in discovering the optimal climate-based design strategies for your home, or how to properly design for snow, reach out to AIDA, LLC today for a consultation.You can always find more information and healthy home resources at Aletheia Ida Design and Architecture, LLC (AIDA, LLC) at www.aletheiaida.com.