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December 7th, 2009 The Star Snow Last night we witnessed a natural phenomenon unlike anything we had ever seen. Going out after dark, we looked up into a cloudless sky, with the stars shining brightly. It was the type of cold, clear night that quickly chills you.
We searched for clouds that might explain the snow, but there was nothing. The sky was clear. We took a powerful torch out into the front yard and shined the spotlight up into the sky, which was illuminated with snowflakes. Each flake was crystalline and highly reflective, as snow tends to be on cold nights. For over an hour, through the time it took us to grill salmon, sit for dinner, and go back outside to re-investigate, the mysterious snow fell from the sky. Attempts to get a photo were not very successful -- some Photoshop manipulation has allowed the photo here to display some of the stars (faint in the background) along with some of the flakes (bright against and above the trees). Below us, the ground was sparkling with the snow. It wasn't enough to build up a layer of white, but it did turn everything into a shimmering field of diamonds. A bit of searching on the internet told us that this unusual snowfall is called 'diamond dust'. You can learn more about it here. It was truly a magical experience.
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This
was normal enough, but for one strange thing. It was snowing.