Beth, at the always enlightening Cassandra Pages, has posted an entry that mentions a phenomenon I was familiar with but whose name I had never heard:
But the willows are turning yellow, and the snow is "rotting", as we call it up here - turning old and crystalized, breaking up into the granular spring consistency called "corn snow".My wife (a Massachusetts gal) knows it, so I'm guessing it's a New England phrase; any of you know the phrase? Posted by languagehat at February 22, 2004 10:39 AM
Well known to skiers anywhere, I think. Not a good thing. I remember the thing from Minnesota, but can't remember if we used the word.
Posted by: zizka at February 22, 2004 01:48 PMYes from New Hampshire.
Posted by: Amy at February 22, 2004 03:26 PM
We call it "corn snow" in Vermont too. It sticks to your skis.
In Italy skiers call it "salt snow".
Posted by: Giovanna at February 22, 2004 04:47 PMI've heard it in Winnipeg too
Posted by: Blinger at February 22, 2004 05:42 PMyep. Iowa.
Posted by: Sean Meade at February 22, 2004 07:21 PMWell, in Iowa it's all about corn.
Posted by: language hat at February 22, 2004 07:52 PMCorn snow is really formed by many cycles of freezing and thawing and refreezing. My husband says when he was a kid in Vermont, in the days before artificial snowmaking, everybody looked forward to early spring and corn snow, because it was a whole lot better to ski on than ice. On natural snow trails, it really isn't a bad surface. (We New Englanders have a million ways to put up with winter and the spring-that-never-comes.) Thanks for the link, LH!
Posted by: beth at February 22, 2004 08:06 PMI agree with "zizka": every skier -- perhaps cross-country skiers in particular -- knows the term "corn snow." When it occurs, you haul out the sticky wax.
Posted by: Chas Clifton at February 22, 2004 09:07 PMIn Washington as well.
Posted by: emmling at February 23, 2004 03:04 AMWhat, has no one weighed in from Florida yet?
Posted by: commonbeauty at February 23, 2004 12:21 PMNot from Florida, but in Russia the pre-spring snow of this consistency will be added an adjective "nozdrevatyi". I'm sure skiers have their own slang word for it, but since I'm not - I don't know.
Posted by: Tatyana at February 23, 2004 01:35 PMWe called it "corn snow" when I was a kid but I always thought the name came by analogy with corn salt -- the large, mostly hexagonal crystals that are used to cure (and name) corned beef. I'm from northern Maine, FWIW. When I skied competitively in college (downhill racing) we called it "coarse granular."
Posted by: xiaolongnu at February 23, 2004 03:12 PMYes from Colorado, too. You can't make a snow cave in corn snow.
Posted by: Eva at February 23, 2004 03:16 PMWe had the term in Buffalo, and it was common enough to have spawned jokes about white corn vs. yellow corn.
Come to think of it, it's fairly rare in my experience in cities the size of Buffalo or larger: too much soot.
Posted by: Chris Clarke at February 24, 2004 08:35 PM