What causes the blue color that you see in the snow? — Katherine of Pagosa Springs, CO

Dear Katherine,

The reason snow sometimes looks blue has to do with the light it reflects. As you may know, "white" light is really made up of all the colors of the rainbow. We see colors because this light is reflected off the things around us. An object appears red to us because it has absorbed all colors except red. We see the red light that is reflected from the object. So, the snow reflects more of the blue light from the Sun's white light. That's why snow sometimes looks blue.