The strange trend of perplexing precipitation continues this week as Russia is blanketed in a purple haze of cyclamen snow. The source of the snow is still being speculated on, but the answer as to what it really is has shocked scientists as samples after the first snow drifts are being analyzed. Of course strange colored snow has hit Russia before, but never in the way this most recent fall has.
Possible explanations have ranged from an ecological disaster of unknown origin to a supernatural origin. As with any out of the ordinary weather occurrence, many people take such incidents as indicators of the end of the world. Of course given the prevalence of bizarre weather conditions, it’s hard to say if any one of them are the final harbinger of doom. For example, in September of 2009, Sydney turned red from a mysterious haze that blocked out the sun and turned the sky the color of blood. Several who woke up were confused and thought surely the apocalypse had come. Of course it was soon found that the city had been entirely obfuscated by a dust storm which whipped around them and caused delays as the dust storm descended, choking several citizens into wearing scarves or bandanas around their faces and leaving several planes grounded for hours. And speaking of Australia, several fish fell from the sky in Lajamanu mere days ago, once again setting a trend for bizarre and unexplainable precipitation. Of course this newest one promises to take on a whole new level of weirdness as scientists scramble for an explanation.
So it is through the lens of previous strange rainfalls in recent months that we take a look at this most recent snowfall. When people awoke on March ninth in Southern Russia, they discovered that the outside was completely covered in a thick flakey purple snow that had piled up on cars, roofs, city streets, and trees. After an initial moment of trepidation they went outside to investigate how widespread the snowfall was, and discovered that it was not merely in patches on certain areas, but rather covering vast areas, sometimes with only purple snow visible. Of course it wasn’t just a deep purple, but also faded and lighter in some areas, while brown in others. The brown snow is indicative of what the source is according to several scientists who have posited that it comes from a dust storm.
Climatologists have taken samples and studied the snowfall, and have concluded that the snow itself is as safe as other snow, but it’s still not recommended to consume as it contains large quantities of dust which may or may not be healthy to consume. But where did purple dust come from? And how did it end up in Russia. According to climatologists, the source was likely a massive dust devil, or tornado which pulled purple dust and sand from Africa’s Stavropol beaches. As the dust was pulled into the upper atmosphere by the forces, it eventually settled into clouds and was carried aloft by wind before sprinkling down over Russia.