Photo via @sarahmojo/TikTok, @cowboyrikter75/TikTok
February 23, 2021, 1:50 pm
In spite of much of the snow having already melted, videos promoting the conspiracy theory that somehow Bill Gates or whoever blanketed Texas and other areas with “fake snow” continue to spread on TikTok and beyond.
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Many of these videos, primarily made by QAnon believers, claim to show that the snow doesn’t melt or “burns” in a way they think it shouldn’t because they’re unfamiliar with things like snow and science.
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In reality, the reason that snow doesn’t immediately melt into the water when hit with very high temperatures is due to the process of sublimation, wherein the ice skips the water phase and turns directly into gas. However, looking closely often shows that there is melting going on—it’s just not as fast and dramatic as they think it should be.
One of these “experiments” in particular attempts to melt a snowball with a hairdryer. The woman manages to claim that the snow isn’t melting even as you can see the snow melting on the patio as she’s setting up the demonstration and you can clearly hear the dripping of water from snow melting from the roof.
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She includes the hashtag #snowwontmelt in her video description—a tag that has gained nearly 300,000 views on TikTok.
Another video simply shows a man picking up some snow and crushing it in one hand, then claiming that it left no moisture on his skin.
“There’s government snow right here, just falls off your hand, don’t even make it wet.”
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Those who are more familiar with snow will recognize this type of white stuff as “powdery,” which tends to occur under very cold and dry conditions like the ones that happened in Texas. If you let it stay on your skin for longer than two seconds, it will melt and become wet.
People in the comments on TikTok and Twitter have worked to explain the rather simple science behind what people are seeing in these snow videos, but as always, conspiracy theories don’t respond to logic. Others have instead decided to troll the snow truthers with videos showing that the snow does, indeed, melt.
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Another video is just a guy nodding to a simple explanation of sublimation as well as the reason why snow starts seeming to turn black when you try and melt it with a lighter. Turns out it’s just charring due to the lighter fluid fumes.
Bill Nye must be so irritated right now.
*First Published: February 23, 2021, 1:50 pm
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