{"id":38050,"date":"2023-06-28T16:08:06","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T23:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/?p=38050"},"modified":"2023-06-28T16:08:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T23:08:07","slug":"phenomenon-turns-snow-in-utah-pink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/phenomenon-turns-snow-in-utah-pink\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Phenomenon turns snow in Utah pink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Patches of snow in Utah&#8217;s mountains have turned pink. And while the so-called &#8220;watermelon snow&#8221; spotted on Tony Grove Lake may look pretty, it could indicate bad news for the environment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chlamydomonas nivalis, the scientific name for watermelon snow, occurs when a bacteria called psychrophilic begins to grow in cold environments,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC7874021\/\" target=\"_blank\">according to a study<\/a>\u00a0published by the National Library of Medicine. Algae is the source of the bacteria and that&#8217;s what turns patches of snow a pink or red hue.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the albedo, or reflective surface, of the snow is decreased when this happens, the snow may melt quicker, speeding up the melting rate of glaciers,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41396-018-0048-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">studies have found.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/mysterious-pink-watermelon-snow-italian-alps-environmental-disaster-climate-change\/\" target=\"_blank\">watermelon snow phenomenon<\/a>\u00a0usually happens in the spring and summer and was seen on the Presena glacier in the Italian Alps in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers with the Institute of Polar Sciences at Italy&#8217;s National Research Council warned watermelon snow could intensify with climate change. &#8220;In fact, low snowfall during the winter and high spring\/summer temperatures create the perfect environment for the development of these algae,&#8221; wrote researcher Biagio Di Mauro.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experts recommend you do not eat the watermelon snow,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oceanconservancy.org\/blog\/2020\/03\/04\/what-is-watermelon-snow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to<\/a>&nbsp;the Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit that focuses on environmental advocacy. The algae is green under a microscope but develops the pink or red color as a protective barrier \u2013 almost like a sunscreen against the sun&#8217;s ultraviolet rays. This, however, causes the snow to absorb the sun&#8217;s heat and therefore melt faster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patches of snow in Utah&#8217;s mountains have turned pink. And while the so-called &#8220;watermelon snow&#8221; spotted on Tony Grove Lake may look pretty, it could indicate bad news for the environment.&nbsp; Chlamydomonas nivalis, the scientific name for watermelon snow, occurs when a bacteria called psychrophilic begins to grow in cold environments,\u00a0according to a study\u00a0published by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":38051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cww7news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/SNOW-e1687993675999.jpg?fit=700%2C382&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38052,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38050\/revisions\/38052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}