Throwing Boiling Water into Extreme CNY Cold

What happens when you combine boiling water with the freezing cold temperatures of Central New York? You're either talking about an outdoor hot tub or a pretty cool science experiment.

This post is actually one part science and one part cautionary tale. First, let's talk about the science. If you take a pot of boiling water and throw it into very cold air, you make instant snow.

Why Does Boiling Water Turn Into Snow?

According to scienceabc.com, "boiling water is closer to the point of evaporation than cold water. Cold air is very dense, which makes its capacity to hold water vapor molecules very low. Therefore, when hot water is thrown into extremely cold air, the smallest droplets are able to cool and evaporate in a dramatic cloud before they reach the ground. In reality, this water isn’t actually converting into snow; rather, the water rapidly evaporates into vapor that immediately condenses into a cloud."

Now for the cautionary tale: don't try this at home without being careful. That should be obvious when you're throwing boiling water into the air, but uh - yeah. The water went into the air and turned into snow...except for the boiling water that hit our house and splashed back on my face.

If you ever want to feel REALLY stupid, videotape yourself doing something REALLY stupid. Idiocy for posterity. Yay, me. The good news is that I had some fresh snow to put on the burn.