Debunking viral "burning snow" videos. Here's what really happens

As winter storms coat the region, a familiar trend is once again circulating on social media.

Viral videos show people taking lighters to snowballs, claiming that the snow must be synthetic or plastic because it turns black and fails to drip water.

While the visual effect can be startling, there is nothing sinister at play. The phenomenon is the result of simple thermodynamics and the chemistry of the lighter itself.

Why does the snow turn black?

The most alarming part of these videos, the black scorch marks, is not actually the snow burning. It is the result of incomplete combustion from the fuel source.

When you hold a lighter or a match to a snowball, the butane, lighter fluid, or wood particles are burning. As they burn, they release soot. Because the snowball is cold, the soot instantly condenses and collects on the surface of the snow.

You can replicate this effect without snow.

If you hold a lighter up to a clear glass window or a ceramic plate, the same black film will appear. The chemical smell often described in these videos is also due to fuel fumes concentrating in one area, not the smell of burning snow.

The mystery of the missing water

The second claim in these videos is that the snow isn't melting because no water is dripping off the snowball. However, the snow is melting; it is just happening internally.

This occurs for two reasons.

Unlike a solid ice cube, a snowball is made of loosely packed crystals with air pockets between them.

As the outer layer melts, the water is pulled back into the center of the snowball through capillary action, essentially wicking the moisture away like a sponge.

Because a lighter flame is significantly hotter than the freezing point, some of the snow undergoes a phase change called sublimation.

Sublimation occurs when a solid (ice) turns directly into a gas (water vapor), skipping the liquid stage entirely. This requires intense heat, which the lighter provides, causing some of the snow to vanish into thin air rather than drip.

To see the difference in density, you can perform the same test on a solid ice cube. Because the ice cube is dense and lacks air pockets, the water has nowhere to go.

While the ice will still turn black from the lighter's soot, you will see the water drip immediately.

The snow in your yard is real. The black char is simply carbon soot, and the lack of dripping is due to the unique porous structure of the snowball.