Dear Anita

Snowflakes form when temperatures are lower than -10⁰C (-20⁰ C snowflakes) and the air is saturated with water vapor.  The air contains tiny particles of clay, salts and dust that are picked up by the wind. When temperatures get cold enough and the air is saturated with water vapor, the tiny particles in the air start to freeze and form ice crystals. The tiny droplets of water vapor that freeze are still too small to fall to the ground. So they supercool which is when the liquid droplets are cooled below their melting point without freezing solid, allowing small droplets of water to accumulate until they droplets of water vapor become heavy enough to fall to the ground. The cold temperatures in the atmosphere air cause the droplets of water to freeze and crystals to form into different shapes of snowflakes. No two snowflakes are alike.

In some places like Wisconsin when the weather drops below -40 ⁰ C the trees will explode because they can’t take the cold temperatures. This is another example of supercooling. When snowflakes form the temperatures outside are below freezing and trees must protect themselves. They do this by adapting to the cold temperatures with thick layers of bark and store sugars in their inner cells. However if temperatures get to below -40 ⁰C then the trees sugar sap contains water and water freezes. So the tree’s life supply freezes and it can’t take the pressure of the cold temperatures so it’s bark explodes and the tree dies. Supercooling of water is the reason why this happens. Since the trees store sap to prepare for the winter, if the temperatures are too cold (below-40⁰C ) then the liquid sap in trees becomes hardened and doesn’t flow as well and later the hardened sap begins to develop ice crystals that chill the tree from inside and cause its bark to crack.

I love learning about nature in my pine barrens class. My pine barrens professor believes everyone is unique and has potential to inspire the world. I’ve learned lots about the New Jersey Pine Barrens in the class. I learned about supercooling with trees too. The Pine Barrens spans from Ocean County to Cape May County New Jersey and it’s a UN  recognized biosphere  because of the importance of its species like pine barrens tree frog. The Pine Barrens contains red cedar trees (which are actually juniper trees ) and the true cedars are Atlantic White Cedar. Atlantic White Cedar trees make good tassels for building road paveways and for making charcoal to help keep warm in winters. There are lots of “ghost forests” where the Atlantic White Cedars were chopped down for industrial purposes and it takes about 90 years for the trees to regrow back. Atlantic White Cedar trees are very important since they help with holding soil together and prevent bad floods. The Pine Barrens is just as large as Yosemite National Park and the Great Egg Harbor River in Egg Harbor City, NJ used to be as deep as the Thames River in England. The Pine Barrens has 17.7 trillion gallons of water underneath that feeds groundwater Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer for people in South Jersey.

Before the Pine Barrens was a “no-place” and people didn’t think much of it because it’s sandy, acidic soils couldn’t grow anything but now it’s a “someplace” with books written about it and its biodiversity.