Acrording to a artical from Knight Ridder Wire service this sunday. Snow acts as a sound asorber when it is freshly fallen because of christal composition. Scienctists have recently learned. This explains why in the winter you may not be able to hear a train unitll it is almost on top of you.
It took scientists to figure that out ???
Like duha !!!
[%-)]
And it’s not the crystals. It the elasticity of the snow inefficiently reflecting the sound waves.
[;)]
wonder how much government resurch money that this “think tank” got to come up with this… man…i just love seeing my tax dollors at work for worthless resurch projects…
csx engineer
everybody with a little experience in winter railroading or railfanning could have told so. one has to be extremely careful while crossing tracks during snowfall.
Also just in…
Little know fact.
Running head first into a brick wall can cause a rash of useless posting on forums…
And Drain Bammage…
[banghead]
Better that snow absorbs sound rather than absorbing the heat off the back of a Houston switch foreman.
Jay[:D][:D][:D]
I believe they also found out that not stopping and looking is dangerous:) Oh, yeah, sniffing sparay paint is also bad. And smoking and tobacco and household cleaner fumes… WOW These guys are REALLY smart to figure this out.
Once again scientists are bedazzled by a blinding flash of the obvious.
I often refer to the “muffled thump” of a large overnight snowfall. You know. That’s often the first one of the year, where there was no snow on the ground when you went to bed, but there’s 8" on the ground when you get up…
You mean if I get buried in snow their is no reason to cry help since nobody will hear me? Gee whiz I never knew that before. Good to learn something new. Lucky we I live chances of snow is most unlikely though.
The absorption coefficients of fresh snow have been in acoustical textbooks for about 60 years or more. When I studied acoustics in 1952-1954, snow was well known as a sound absorber and the textbooks were not brand new by any means.
I did notice that when I hopped in the car to go get a gas fix from my pusher in the wintertime, as I accelerated there was a slight buffet as I increased speed to faster than the snow was falling.
SO that would explain the muffled booms I would sometimes hear as the snow was falling…I just thought it was hunters. Hmmm learn something new everyday…
Just had an idea for the NIMBYS and the “horn at the crossing keeps me awake all night” crowd…
Jay
Anybody with a little experience in WINTER could have told you that. That’s one of the nice things about hiking when it’s snowing… The quiet.
But don’t worry, I’m sure that study only cost 10-15 million. 
Dave
-DPD Productions - Home of the TrainTenna RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/
Hey just asking that folks be extra safe in the winter around railroad tracks
I understand there is a study underway now to determine why it gets dark quicker in the winter than in the summer, why the sun always rises in the east, and how come the sky is blue (at least outside the LA Basin).
That’s easy…It’s because it’s hockey and basketball season.
Football and baseball are frequently played outdoors, so they need more light, but basketball and hockey are played indoors and thus do not need as much natural sunlight. See?