How cold does it have to be? to do this.

[TheWolf]

Just seen this on the news.



I do not know where it was and did not hear how cold it was. But, people were taking a cup of hot water and tossing the hot water in the air. It instantly turned into snow! What it looked like is if you were to take a cup full of flour and toss it into the air. they also ssid somewhere in canda( I think new brunswick?) it was -30 before the wind chill factor. :--)

 

[HoleshotHolset]

I heard they were doing this in Burlington, VT...



Makes you wonder what would happen if you had to pee outside... . :-laf



Matt

 

[mdivincentis]

I've tried this at -36f ambient and it didn't work... . It was cold water too. Who knows.







Matt

 

[HEMI®Dart]

Maybe just the steam from the hot water turned into snow?

 

[skobylenski]

The evening news weather guy for WPTZ in Burlington was standing outside on Wed. (I think), with a bowl of cereal and a banana. The entire bowl was frozen and the banana broke apart when he hit it.



I remember probably 6 years ago there was a weather reporter outside in North Dakota. He did the water trick, and it came back as ice. I think he was using hot water. Of course, when it's that cold, ANY water is hot

 

[SOOT]

It was somewere over on the east side they said the wind chill was 105 BELOW:{ I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard that.

 

[HEMI®Dart]

Just for the heck of it I looked up the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth.



-129 degrees F, at Vostok Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.

 

[MMeier]

-129 in July, holy schneikies, yes I saw it was Antarctica but still... .

 

[HEMI®Dart]

Originally posted by MMeier

-129 in July, holy schneikies, yes I saw it was Antarctica but still... .

I imagine one deep breath in those temps and your lungs would be shot.

 

[nickleinonen]

Originally posted by Dl5treez

Hot water in some instances will freeze much faster than cold water. Check this link out:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html

hmm. that sorta explains why when my laundry room water pipes freeze up, it's always the hot one and not the cold one that freezes up. and at work, the dispatch tower's hot water freezes up when it gets to -25°C but the cold still flows. .

 

[NPloysa]

I believe that -100 wind chill temp was by Mount Washington.



Also, how water freezes faster than cold water due to having less air bubbles in it. Air takes longer to freeze than water does, so cold/more air water takes longer to freeze than hot/less air water does.