"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 donÂ’t 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 don’t 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 Russia’s 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."
