Is THIS Snow White or Blue?

Thursday night, Chester County and surrounding areas were hit hard by a sneak attack of snow. Just 24 hours after a predicted snow did NOT develop into anything, this one came out of nowhere.

In addition to the surprise snow, THIS snow packed an additional surprise.  Some people actually saw the snow as blue.

That's right. We asked a British scientist what he thought (notice his spelling of color).  "It's likely due to some kind of colour constancy illusion, where some people are perceiving the context to be something like "lit by blueish daylight" and others are perceiving it to be something like "under yellow department store lights." In the former case, your brain will try and get the objective (if such a thing can be said) colour by subtracting out the blue as a shadow.  This is a common illusion in psychology but it's not seen that often 'in the wild,' even though your brain does this constantly."

So based on this theory, we at Chester County Weather Insider conclude all snow is actually blue but because we view it in daylight, and not in department stores we see it as white.

So what happened Thursday that allowed some of us to see the snow as blue?  The angle of the sun passing through the clouds perfectly replicated the poor yellow lighting of a typical department store, so those who do not spend hours shopping saw the snow as blue.  Those of you who are shopaholics, your eyes went into autopilot and compensated making the snow appear white as it normally does.

Above we have enhanced the original photo so everyone can see the extreme manner in which this may be perceived. Do your eyes perceive it as it actually IS in the original photo, or did your eyes played tricks on you and allow the snow to look mainly white with only a hint of blue?

Stay warm, and happy weather watching from the Insider!