Don't Eat the Yellow or Pink Snow!

With the threat of snow in the District on Saturday, here is a frosty fact-o-the-day. Don’t eat pink snow.

There are actually types of cyanobacteria (aka: blue-green algae) that are able to live in snow. If you think about it, nothing should really be able to live in snow since it has no nutrients or anything else to offer an organism except water. Cyanobacteria get all of its nutrient requirements from photosynthesis; therefore, a snow bank in a sunny location is a lovely home for these bacteria. The pink snow can also be caused by an algae, Chlamydomonas nivalis.

These pink snows are found in the polar and alpine regions during the summer (summer = lots of light to photosynthesize). They can be found along the coasts of North America as well.

So if you see any pink snow, don’t eat it. If it’s not bacteria, it’s blood from someone that got mugged right there.