Call it beautiful, annoying, inspiring or dangerous, snow is anything but boring. And that's even before you start learning more about the science behind it.
Olympians and everyday Americans know snow is a complex and fickle phenomenon, influenced by temperature and moisture, but it's so much more than that.
“It's just frozen water, but it can be so many different things,” Gus Schumacher, a cross-country skier competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics, told USA TODAY.
Snow, of course, is essential to the winter games. It flies into the air as skiers race downhill and adds to the scenic mountain backdrops in the Italian Alps. When Austrian skier Benjamin Karl won a gold medal in the men’s parallel giant slalom on opening weekend of the 2026 games, he celebrated by ripping off his jackets and shirt and collapsing facedown into the snow in homage to one of his idols.
Besides being crucial for winter sports events, snow plays many other important roles, said David Robinson, New Jersey State Climatologist and a distinguished professor in the Rutgers University geography department.
