March 24, 2022

The snowflakes today were the biggest I've ever seen — like Queen Anne's Lace flowers.

I took this video a few minutes before the flakes maximized... 

 

... and I don't think video ever really shows falling snow quite realistically.

So take my word for it! Biggest snowflakes ever!

Write about whatever you want in the comments. Feel free to weigh in on your level of enthusiasm for extra-large snowflakes. Mine is sky high.

50 comments:

Linda said...

My husband and I made the same statement - biggest flakes we had ever seen! We were driving and the flakes were so large (and had so much water content) that you could hear them hitting the car.

Leland said...

I await the double entendres.

Lincolntf said...

I was living at Cape Cod for a few winters, some of the flakes blowing in from the bay were almost palm-sized. I don't know if the salinity, wind, whatever were the main factor. Sadly, that was before cellphone camera times, I don't think I can find a photo. Either way, it was remarkable.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Madison: Lotta snowflakes! Big ones too! Boy Howdy.

Scott Patton said...

Learned a new word today.
sententious
Thanks Althouse!

Lyle said...

The largest snowflakes I've ever seen were also spring snowflakes. There was an April blizzard in west Texas when I was in junior high and just the biggest snowflakes ever.

Ann Althouse said...

Reddit post declaring today’s flakes the biggest: https://www.reddit.com/r/madisonwi/comments/tmidak/biggest_snow_flakes_i_have_ever_seen_in_my_life/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

ndspinelli said...

Large snowflakes can be seen daily on the UW campus.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Video of an apparent trans-woman saying trans-women aren’t women. 😱

👉🏽 https://www.reddit.com/r/banned4life/comments/tlf2tj/transwomen_are_not_women_transwomen_are/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Maybe you noticed something of a pattern. Trans-women who could pass as women have less of an issue with not being identified as women. Where as the less a trans-woman can pass off as a woman the more radical she seems to be.

It reminds me of one of Rush’s undeniable truths: “Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream.”

Bob Boyd said...

Your post got me wondering.

Guinness World Records lists a snowflake 15 inches in diameter and 8 inches thick as measured at Fort Keogh, Montana, in 1887, as the largest.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/weather/ct-wea-asktom-11-30-2017-all-hd-artweather-ctbroadsheet-txt-20171129-column.html

Curious George said...

Biggest? I don't know, probably not. But unusually big, coming down with rain in Milwaukee. Of course with temps in the high 30's, and rain soaked thawed ground, they weren't long lived. But fun to watch.

madAsHell said...

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington State has ordered the flags to half-mast in honor of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

Is there a tag........searching-for-relevance??

Original Mike said...

"So take my word for it! Biggest snowflakes ever!"

I can vouch for the fact that they were certainly large.

Master Diver said...

When I grew up on the North Shore of Massachusetts, we would get heavy wet snow that looked like someone had torn open a feather pillow. Big, soft, a good 2 inches long and an inch wide.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Sorry. I thought this was a talk-about-whatever post.

Carol said...

We had those in Missoula a few days ago.

Bloody amazing.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

That's the most common kind of snow we get here in Pugetopolis. When it falls at the ski resorts, it's referred as "Cascade Concrete" because it makes very heavy snow. Not at all like the fluffy stuff seen at Jackson Hole or the Tetons.

Yancey Ward said...

The biggest flakes I ever saw was during my grandfather's 55th birthday celebration in 1981. It was exactly 41 years ago (he would have turned 96 today if he were still alive). It was about 35-36 degrees, and the flakes looked like snowballs coming down.

Joe Smith said...

As big as your hand?

As big as killer spiders?

Two-eyed Jack said...

Been thinking of the old Helen Reddy anthem:

Defining woman, I insist,
Requires a trained biologist.
A Ph.D. and all that science stuff.
But on matters more mundane
There’s no need for some big brain
When a woman’s intuition is enough.

Oh Yes! I am wise,
Although I’m not LatinX,
You surely recognize
The wisdom of my sex.
If I have to, I can judge anything!
I’m not wrong! (wrong)!
I’m a woman! (infallible)

Mutaman said...

Looks like Clarence and Ginny have some splainin to do.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Via Reddit: “First patient to communicate via brain implant asks to hear Tool album“

Top voted comment : “This poor man has had a Tool song stuck in his head for years but can't remember more than 3 lyrics on repeat.”

Talk about hell 😶

👉🏽https://lambgoat.com/news/35907/first-patient-to-communicate-via-brain-implant-asks-to-hear-tool-album/

Ann Althouse said...

@Lem

It is. Explicitly. It’s just that a lot of people want to talk about big snowflakes.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...a lot of people want to talk about big snowflakes.

Are they big snowflakes the size of small snowflakes?

Narr said...

You people are such big snowflake fluffers. (Just hadn't seen a you people in a while . . . but then I don't read all posts' comments.)

Public radio is playing music by F.X.W. Mozart, youngest son of YKW. Music teachers included Salieri and Hummel.

Played, composed, conducted and organized and improved musical life in Lvov "in what is now the Ukraine." I.e. Lemberg in the realm of Habsburgia.

The boy had talent.







Beasts of England said...

I can’t define the term ‘big’. I’m not a particle physicist…

Wince said...

Get back to me when it’s frogs falling from the sky.

Butkus51 said...

I remember as a kid having snow mid april, huge snowflakes.

I also remember driving out of Logan Airport at night, never been to Boston, got on the expressway, couldnt see a thing the snowflakes were huge, coming right at me and I couldnt see. It wasnt a lot, but it was similar to a zebra thing.

Been scared 2 times in my life driving. That night and a few years ago on that stretch between Minneapolis and Madison. It was the year that Rodgers won his only Super Bowl. Twas a cold snowy winter.

100 cars and trucks all over the road, off the road, upside down. I kissed a guardrail is all. With a huge drop on the other side.


Mason G said...

When it falls at the ski resorts, it's referred as "Cascade Concrete"...

A couple of states south, it's "Sierra Cement".

Bender said...

So, if I were to get a dog, how would I know if it was female or male?

After all, dogs can't speak to tell me their gender identity.

tim in vermont said...

During an interview with Foreign Policy, the IMF's first deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath, warned that Western sanctions on Russia, and more specifically, the confiscation of dollar- and euro-denominated reserves held by the Russian Central Bank, could backfire by making other foreign central banks more reluctant to hold such a large amount of their own foreign reserves in dollars and euros. - Zerohedge

The emotional and headlong rush into not just sanctions, but seizure of assets is going to make a lot of countries wonder if maybe they ought not get the shock collar of holding huge numbers of dollars or euros from around there necks, in case anger turns on them for some unpredictable reason.

I know, I know, "Good countries need not fear," but these kinds of miscalculations are 2008 all over again.

Mutaman said...


Blogger Two-eyed Jack said...

" Been thinking of the old Helen Reddy anthem:"
Nothing gets these crackers hard like posting bs about women of color.

gadfly said...

madAsHell said...
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington State has ordered the flags to half-mast in honor of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

Is there a tag........searching-for-relevance??


Not everyone has to agree with decisions made to fly flags at half-mast. For example FL Gov Ron DeSantis declared that flags be lowered to half mast in the Sunshine State when Rush Limbaugh died and we know that the elected Agricultural Commissioner, Nikki Fried, issued a directive to her offices to ignore the order from the governor.

So the relevance is that Governors declare lowering the flag because they can and non-governors cannot so order - unless, of course, the President does so.

Meade said...

Can I provide a definition of “woman?” Senator, respectfully, what difference, at this point, does it make?

gilbar said...

The 'rock n roll in 500 songs' guy, is ONLY up to Episode 146
At this rate, Clearly i'll be long dead and gone before he gets done.

My Only Question is: Will my death be due to Old Age? or the upcoming Thermonuclear War?

gilbar said...

Oh Hey! According to The WSJ's Potomac Watch, the Stroke Senator will be out for another month.. Which was different from what i'd reported from the New Mexico paper

So, i'm guessing he's
Out of the hospital
Out of New Mexico
Stopped by the Senate and waved to the crowd
Is at Home doing brain rehab

rehajm said...

I missed out on snow for a whole year. First time in my life…

Wilson Bentley is from my family’s town in Vermont. A Bentley snowflake photo sits in a little easel on top of the cabinet in our stair hall…

BUMBLE BEE said...

Trudeau knows how to treat women?
https://thepostmillennial.com/watch-european-mep-condemns-trudeau-for-trampling-women-with-horses
On the world stage no less.

David Blaska said...

Should say these large flakes fell 03-24-22 at mid-day in Madison WI. Saw them too in our part of town. Just lovely. Queen Anne's lace, indeed!

tim in vermont said...

"Wilson Bentley is from my family’s town in Vermont."

Sweet little town it is.

Wince said...

Here's the biggest snowflake.

madAsHell said...

Get back to me when it’s frogs falling from the sky.

Have you ever seen a tornado in a swamp?? The tornado picks up the frogs, and they fall from the sky.

MadisonMan said...

Technically Aggregates. Not just one snowflake.

Begonia said...

Where are you in Dane County where you can go mountain biking? I thought all the trails are closed. And yes, I saw the giant flakes too.

Patrick said...

Careful, could be caustic lye soda flakes deployed from Russia.

Mutaman said...

Tonight in Hagerstown, there was a heated exchange between growing factions of The People's Convoy over the direction of the movement and allegations of the convoy being "corrupt[ed]." Maryland State PD was called and arrested one man armed with a loaded firearm.

Meade said...

@Begonia — due south of Madison, Dane county. Keep going approximately 600 miles. Singletrack heaven.

gpm said...

>>You people are such big snowflake fluffers. (Just hadn't seen a you people in a while

I thought Howard had the trademark on the "you people" terminology. It just seems weird how he consistently posts insulting "you people" crap, then expects (and gets!) respectful attention when he's not being an incredibly insulting asshole. Must be really fun to be in his circle of acquaintances.

--gpm

Tina Trent said...

I used to laugh at the way Georgians would rush out and empty the shelves of bread and milk if even a dusting of snow was predicted. But they were happy. There was a sense of camaraderie, like attending a baseball game together.

We need that. It's rare to have enough snow here that the traffic disappears and there's snow silence. We make up for it with the milk-buying ritual.

Narr said...

You people call yourselves snowflakes?

Ha! Back in my day your average snowflake was twice as snowflaky as you people.