Signal to Snow Ratio is an EP released by the band Grandaddy in 1999. It is included in the 2CD-edition of their album The Sophtware Slump.
Nokian Tyres plc () is a Finnish manufacturer of tires for cars, trucks, heavy duty equipment and bicycles. It is the largest car tire manufacturer in the Nordic region. Headquartered in Nokia, Finland, Nokian (which were originally branded as Nokia tires), was split from the then conglomerate Nokia (which later became worlds largest mobile phone vendor) in 1988. Nokia Corporation no longer has any ownership-interest in Nokian Tyres, whose largest shareholder (with an 18.9% stake) is the Japanese tire vendor Bridgestone. However, Nokian Tyres still operates as an independent company.
In the bicycle industry they are known as one of the few manufacturers of metal studded snow tires.
Nokian Tyres also runs the Vianor tyre chain, which is the largest and most extensive tyre franchise in the Nordic countries with approximately 190 retail outlets across Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Baltic countries and Russia.
Subnivean (or subniveal) refers to a zone that is in or under the snow layer.
Subnivean animals include small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, and lemmings that must rely on winter snow cover for survival. These mammals move under the snow for protection from heat loss and predators. In winter regions that do not have permafrost, the subnivean zone maintains a temperature of close to 32F (0C) regardless of the temperature above the snow cover, once the snow cover has reached a depth of six inches. The sinuous tunnels left by these small mammals can be seen when the snow melts to the final inch or so.
Winter predators such as foxes and large owls can hear their prey through the snow and pounce from above. Snowmobiles and ATVs can collapse the subnivean space, as can skis, snow shoes and bicycles.
Larger animals also utilize subnivean space. In the Arctic, ringed seals have closed spaces under the snow and above openings in the ice. In addition to resting and sleeping there, the female seals give birth to their pups on the ice. Female polar bears also den in snow caves to give birth to their young. Both types of dens are protected from exterior temperatures.
Winter World by Bernd Heinrich (2003) is an excellent resource on the ingenuity of animal survival in the seasonal cold weather of a Maine winter.
The Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり Sapporo Yuki-matsuri ) is a famous yearly festival held in Sapporo, Japan over seven days in February. In 2007 it was held from February 6 to February 12.
It is one of the largest winter events in Japan. Teams from outside Japan come to participate, and the festival is thought to be an opportunity for promoting international relations. About two million people come to see the enormous beautiful snow statues on display in Odori Park in central Sapporo, which is the main site of the festival.
The subject of the statues vary and often feature an event or famous person from the past year. For example, in 2004 there were statues of Hideki Matsui, the famous baseball player who plays for the New York Yankees. There are also long ice chutes on which people are encouraged to slide.
The Snow Festival began in 1950 when six local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. In 1955, the Japan Self-Defense Forces from the nearby Makomanai base joined in and built the first massive snow sculpture, for which the Snow Festival has now become famous. In years when the accumulated snowfall is low, the Self-Defense Force, for whom participation is considered a training exercise, brings in snow from outside Sapporo. The Makomanai base, one of three main sites, hosts the largest sculptures, with an emphasis on providing play space for children. The third site is the night life district of Susukino, which hosts the ice carvings.
Nokian Tyres plc () is a Finnish manufacturer of tires for cars, trucks, heavy duty equipment and bicycles. It is the largest car tire manufacturer in the Nordic region. Headquartered in Nokia, Finland, Nokian (which were originally branded as Nokia tires), was split from the then conglomerate Nokia (which later became worlds largest mobile phone vendor) in 1988. Nokia Corporation no longer has any ownership-interest in Nokian Tyres, whose largest shareholder (with an 18.9% stake) is the Japanese tire vendor Bridgestone. However, Nokian Tyres still operates as an independent company.
In the bicycle industry they are known as one of the few manufacturers of metal studded snow tires.
Nokian Tyres also runs the Vianor tyre chain, which is the largest and most extensive tyre franchise in the Nordic countries with approximately 190 retail outlets across Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Baltic countries and Russia.
The Treadwear Grade of a tire is the numeric portion of the Uniform Tire Quality Grade Standards (UTQG) that are printed on the sidewall of a tire. These standards were enacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of the United States Department of Transportation. Higher treadwear numbers indicate that the tread of a tire, and hence the tire itself, should last longer, although this is more true within a single product line than when comparing the product lines of different manufacturers.
The wear on tires that are being tested (”candidate tires”) is compared to the wear of Course Monitoring Tires (CMT), which are sold by the NHTSA at its UTQG test facility in San Angelo, Texas. Both types of tires are mounted on vehicles that will be driven in a convoy during the test, thus ensuring that the candidate tires and the CMT tires experience the same road conditions. The convoy, typically one of four or fewer vehicles, will drive 7200 miles on public roads in West Texas. Candidate tire wear will be checked during and after the test, and compared to the wear on the CMT tires from the same convoy.
The first CMTs were commercially-available Goodyear Custom Steelguards, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company produced all CMT tires from 1975 until 1984. From 1984 to 1991, the CMT tires were produced by Uniroyal. CMT tires are now “specially designed and built to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard E1136 to have particularly narrow limits of variability.” 1.
The treadwear grade describes how long the tire manufacturer expects the tire to last. A Course Monitoring Tire (the standard tire that a test tire will be compared to) has a rating of “100″. If a manufacturer assigns a treadwear rating of 200 to a new tire, they are indicating that they expect the new tire to have a useful lifespan that is 200% of the life of a Course Monitoring Tire.
The DOT does not test tires. It depends on manufacturers to test their own tires and report the results. Unfortunately, this system has made treadwear ratings far less useful than the DOT had originally intended because tire manufacturers are able to use the treadwear grade as a marketing tool.
It is legal and permissible for a manufacturer to give their tire a 240 rating when their competitor’s equivalent tire has a 220 rating; thus creating the false impression that the 240 tire is a better purchase because it will last longer. This tendency to inflate treadwear numbers has become so common that some manufacturers may report that ALL their tires have above average treadwear grades. Some are taking normal tires and reporting a treadwear of 600 or more, or giving a 220 rating to maximum performance tires with a reputation for poor tire life (e.g. the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar EMT).
TreadWear Grade
Below 200=15% of Tires
201 - 300=25% of Tires
301 - 400=32% of Tires
401 - 500=20% of Tires
501 - 600=6% of Tires
above 600=2% of Tires
Source: safercars.gov
In general, manufacturers tend to overstate the treadwear of their tires in an effort to create the impression that their tires last a long time. The exception to this is in competition racing tires, which customers expect to have very soft rubber compounds and very short lifespans. Manufacturers tend to give their race tires low treadwear numbers (often zero) to emphasize how soft and sticky their rubber is.
The ability of manufacturers to report their own numbers makes comparison of treadwear ratings between companies useless. Ratings may still be useful within a manufacturer’s own line of tires. For example, a customer can reasonably assume that the higher treadwear rating on a Dunlop SP 60 means it will last longer than the Dunlop SP Sport.
Snow Island () is a completely ice-covered island, 16 by 8 kilometres (10 x 5 mi) in size, lying 6 kilometres (4 mi) southwest of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands. This island was known to both American and British sealers as early as 1820, and the name has been well established in international usage for over 100 years.
A snow fort or snow castle is a usually open-topped temporary structure made of snow walls that is used for recreational purposes. Snow forts are generally built by children as a playground game or winter pastime and are used as defensive structures in snowball fights. They are also built and used for make-pretend games such as “house” or “store”.
Along with the snowman, it is one of the two structures commonly built by children out of snow.
Snow structures made for sleeping are called igloos when made from snow blocks and quinzhees when made by hollowing out a pile of snow.
Snow forts consist of walls of piled and compacted snow. They may be “open” or “closed”, that is, a person in the snow fort may be completely surrounded by the walls on all sides, there may be a “door”, or the person may be completely exposed except in one direction. The last variation is used for snowball fights where opponents have forts facing each other and attack exclusively from their own fort. Existing structures such as the walls or concave corners of a building can be used as part of the snow fort, allowing for faster and easier construction. A snow fort can also be a tunneled-out burrow built in a large snow drift.
Snow forts are usually at least knee-height and one-roomed. Forts built for snowball fights may be higher, and ones built for “house” may have lower walls and multiple rooms. When used for snowball fights, snow forts often have sections where the wall is lower, through which the occupants throw snowballs.
The Backyardigans episode “The Snow Fort” has Mounties defending an elaborate version of such a fort while members of the ski patrol try to get in.
See Severe weather terminology for a comprehensive article on this term and related weather terms.
A Snow Advisory is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when a low pressure system produces snow that may cause a significant pain in the ass, but does not meet warning criteria. The advisory criteria varies from area to area. Snow advisories are typically issued only when a storm system is expected to only produce snow in the advised area. Depending on the amount of snow that is expected, a Heavy Snow Warning can be issued for similar times, but when larger amounts of snow are expected. The exact border between a snow advisory and heavy snow warning varies throughout the country. If other forms of wintry precipitation are expected, then a Winter Weather Advisory or winter storm warning can be issued, also depending on the amount of precipitation that is expected.
Snow City (Chinese: 雪城) is Singapore’s first indoor snow centre located within the Singapore Science Centre area beside Ommi-Theatre in Jurong East. Snow City introduces the concept of snow and cold climates in a fun, entertaining and educational way. Visitors can experience real snow, a sub-zero climate and a three-storey high snow slope.
Snow City is a joint venture by the Singapore Science Centre and NTUC Income Co-operative Pte Ltd. The idea behind the collaboration was that Singapore being a tropical country, many Singaporeans have never had the opportunity to experience the cold climates and snow. With the set up of Snow City will give everybody a chance to learn more about snow, in a fun way.
The 3,000 sq-metre centre was built at a cost of S$6 million and was officially opened in 2000.
Visitors will first arrived at the Air Lock, which is maintained at 10°C. This
allows visitors to become comfortable with the lower temperatures before they enter the chamber itself.
The main focus of Snow City is its Snow Chamber, a 1200 sq-metre room covered with snow. The Snow Chamber is well maintained at -5°C and snow level is kept constantly at 400mm in depth. Between 10 to 15 tons of snow is created each week in order to maintain this level. The snow is produced using a special Snow Gun, which cools water using liquid nitrogen.
Inside the Snow Chamber, is a 60 meter long high slope which is about 3 storeys high. ‘Snowtubing’ is the main activity where visitors will be sliding down the snow slope while sitting on a inflatable tube.
There is also a Snow-Play Area for the younger children.
There is a place for wine and dine on level 2, named Alphine Lodge.
Snow City’s sound educational programmes and workshops are available to schools and interested groups.
Lessons for skiing and snowboarding is available at a fee.
A specially designed Snow Gun is used in the production of snow on site.
Firstly, water is atomized using high-pressure compressed air. The water then arrives at the snow gun and is pushed out of the special nozzles at the end of the barrel. Liquid nitrogen which freezes at a low temperature of -196°C is also passed through the snow gun at the same time. The extreme cold of the liquid nitrogen instantly freezes the atomized water into powder-like snowflakes.
The simplified formula to produce snow is