00:00Ever notice how the world goes quiet right after a snowstorm?
00:04Like someone hit the mute?
00:05Hit the button on real life?
00:07Traffic feels further away.
00:09Footsteps are softer.
00:10Even the wind seems quieter.
00:12That peaceful silence comes down to the structure
00:15of fresh snow.
00:16Newly fallen snow is made up of millions of tiny, uneven ice.
00:20Together, they create a light, poor surface that absorbs sound waves
00:25rather than reflecting them.
00:27Instead of bouncing noise back into the air, those sound waves
00:30get trapped within the snowpack.
00:32The effect is especially noticeable with every day.
00:35The sound waves of the snowy bay sounds, which seem to fade
00:37in a freshly snow-covered environment.
00:39But the quietest...
00:40It's temporary.
00:41As snow settles, becomes packed down, or melts and refreezes,
00:44it surfaces.
00:45Once that happens, sound waves are able to reflect again
00:48in the familiar noise of daily life.
00:50Life gradually returns.
00:51It's a brief moment where winter weather and physics turn the volume down.
00:55On the world.
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