# Can you smell the snow? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 25, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040 "2004-10-25T13:10:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/1 "2004-10-25T13:10:39Z")
When I was living up in the Appalachian mountains at grad school, I worked in a grocery store. One early winter day, I was helping an old lady take her groceries out to her car. There was a heavy overcast and a real chill in the air. The lady turned to me and said, “Looks like we might get some snow.” To this I replied, “Sure smells like it.” She sort of started and said, “Oh, thank you for saying that! All my friends think I’m off my rocker when I say it smells like it’s going to snow.” I hadn’t even thought about it until that moment. To me, smelling an imminent snowfall is completely natural, like smelling smoke and knowing whether it’s a fireplace or a gas grill. It’s the smell of winter. Do any of you dopers know what I’m talking about here? If so, how do you identify the “smell” of snow? To me it’s a sort of sharp, ozone, granite-like tang. After 5.5 years in S. Florida, I really miss it. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/2 "2004-10-25T13:15:34Z")
I can smell the snow sometimes, but when I lived in North Carolina, I could smell the rain like it was intentionally scented. The most wonderful dusty, sweet, “something” smell. I miss that smell like crazy. I guess the conditions have to be right for me to smell snow, but it’s so hard to describe. But it’s definitely unique, and if I smell it, I know it’s going to be snowing very soon. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/3 "2004-10-25T13:15:35Z")
You can smell rain _hours_ before it arrives. And the coming of Spring, & Autumn. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/4 "2004-10-25T13:17:09Z")
Sure can. Once when the prediction was for definite snow, I bet five people $20 each that it was not going to snow. Easiest $100 I ever made. Nobody bets me on weather anymore. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/5 "2004-10-25T13:19:39Z")
My father could smell snow, my mother can smell snow, two of my siblings and I can smell snow. I live in Florida now, so the ability lies fallow. It’s not so much a smell, as a judgment of temperature and humidity which hits the soft, moist nasal tissues first. Keeping your eyes open on the sky obviously helps too. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/6 "2004-10-25T13:29:30Z")
Rain and snow. Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/7 "2004-10-25T13:31:48Z")
I can smell snow. I try avoid smelling yellow snow though… ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/8 "2004-10-25T13:32:33Z")
Yes, I can smell snow. It’s sharp and clean smelling. Rain smells soft and earthy. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/9 "2004-10-25T13:39:15Z")
Rain, yes; snow, no. Of course, living in a valley as a kid, I never had much experience with the latter anyway. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/10 "2004-10-25T14:32:48Z")
Yes, I think snow has a kind of unique aroma. It’s really hard to describe; it’s clean, and as mentioned above, has what I think is a bit of an ozone-y smell. I think it’s more noticeable in wet snow, or “packing snow” for making good snowballs. The stuff you get when it’s really cold, or in a blizzard, doesn’t seem to smell. The cold numbs the inside of your nose before you get to smell it. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/11 "2004-10-25T14:56:12Z")
Yep, I can smell snow too. To me it has that inexplicable “clean” smell that **fishbicycle** mentioned. When I was a kid and smelled that at night, I was usually positive there would be no school the next day. I was usually right since I live in the upstate of South Carolina where virtually all civilization shuts down if five snowflakes fall out of the sky. I can also smell Fall in the air as well, although I think that’s not quite the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/12 "2004-10-25T17:19:19Z")
Definitely. It’s one of the nicest smells in the world. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/13 "2004-10-25T19:26:00Z")
Snow here smells like a run on the grocery store and the bated breath of thousands of school-age children glued to the crawl at the bottom of the TV screen. Now, _hearing_ it, that’s very weird because everybody stays home and freaks out, so it’s amazingly quiet. Especially when the power goes; you don’t realize how much road noise and such you hear until they close the schools and the Wal-Mart and the only noise is snowman-building. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-smell-the-snow/271040/14 "2004-10-25T19:31:20Z")
I definitely could smell snow when I lived in Utah.