by Joseph Parish

Created on: May 19, 2008   Last Updated: May 21, 2008

Bacteria can be present in snow

Many people remember the tongue in cheek comments made concerning eating of yellow snow however, recent investigations have now reviewed that it is no longer merely the yellow snow which one should not digest. Current research that has been conducted is concluding that all the unique snowflakes which fall from above may possibly contain an abundance of potentially dangerous bacteria.

Most people tend to realize that the snow when combining with rain forms within the much cooler portions of the sky. Logic seems to dictate that this airborne moisture would require something that it may cling to when dropping from the sky. Keeping this in mind the researchers have concluded that this something which the droplets cling too is in fact bacteria within the air. These bacteria when falling down to the earth can affect our life in several different ways.

In an effort to add some credit to their new found theory the research scientists decided to examine fresh snowfall from several diverse locations within the world. These locations include Antarctica, France, and the Midwestern state of Montana as well as the Canadian Yukon. It was quickly revealed that 85 % of the falling snowflakes included some sort of bacteria. The particular bacteria that these researchers discovered to be attached to the snowflake were the Pseudomonas syringae. It is widely known that these specific bacteria can easily create a vast amount of diseases in our plant life and in particular bean and tomato crops. Supporting documents have indicated that these same bacteria may possibly be prevalent in our summer rainfall as well.

Previously, the goal had been to eliminate these particular bacteria however now with this newly found evidence indicating that moisture is attached to the specific bacteria perhaps this may no longer be a valid procedure. There is currently considerable scientific discussion as to whether or not this bacterium is beneficial. A potential theory has been brought forth that possibly crops could be dusting with the bacteria within drought areas hoping to increase the bacteria count enough to possibly increases chances for much needed rainfall.

Previously it was known that within our atmosphere many algae and microbes were predominant however, with the conclusions drawn from this research it is now understood that many of the content relating to our atmosphere is in fact active. Although in the past scientist have found various traces of bacteria in the atmospheric it was not until just recently that these bacteria were identified as common Pseudomonas.

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