The Burning Truth About Georgia's Fake Snow

Videos are popping up on #YouTube and everywhere showing so-called #fakesnow, "chemical snow," and "snow that won't melt." People are literally holding cigarette lighters and blowtorches up to a handful of snow and talking about how the snow turns black and "burns like plastic" instead of melting. And they all talk about that "chemical odor." The black on the snow is residue left behind from the burnt off butane or whatever flammable fluid inside the lighter. And the snow absorbed the water turning it to slush instead of melting straight to water. 

A lot of people are even going as far as saying it's a conspiracy, and the snow is man-made by the government ("geo-engineering").But if you understand regular old fashioned physics, you know taking a blowtorch to snow (which is more air than water in the first place), some of the frozen water (H2O) is definitely going to evaporate. That's whether or not you use a torch, a lighter, or even burning wood. What doesn't immediately evaporate has to melt, because the loose fluffy structure of the snow wicks away the water, turning dry snow into wet snow, and eventually turning the snow into slush. 

In cases where the snow seems to blacken and burn, the effect is most likely caused by soot from the lighter. The smell, is fumes from the lighter (also from incomplete combustion) and/or people briefly burning nearby objects like gloves. If you burn it with natural gas... it's a quicker, cleaner burn.

There WAS real snow in Georgia