Formation of Snow in Clouds [ENDORSED]

[Jason Muljadi 2C]

Can someone explain to me why the formation of snow in the clouds is an exothermic reaction? I saw this on the Internet while studying for my test and now I am thoroughly confused.

[Angela G 2K]

Snow is formed when temperatures drop low enough for water to change from a liquid to a solid, which is an exothermic process - as the surroundings cool, heat is transferred from liquid water into the surroundings, and the water solidifies into snow.

[David Zhou 1L]

Heat transfer always involves something getting hotter and another thing getting colder so that the first law of thermodynamics is obeyed and the universe stays functioning.

When water turns into ice, it's getting colder, and so the surroundings must get warmer to balance out the heat transfer. When the surroundings get warmer, the reaction is exothermic.

[Ashley Garcia 2L]

Formation of snow in clouds is an exothermic process because heat is being transferred from the system (liquid water in the sky) to the surroundings, and the surroundings therefore heat up. In order for liquid water to be condensed into a solid form as snow, heat must be removed from the liquid water. This heat must go somewhere because energy is never created or destroyed, it is transferred and/or transformed (first law of thermodynamics(

[RussellChin_3A]

Snow forming in clouds is basically the solidifying of liquid water to solid water. In liquid water, there is less bonding between the molecules compared to solid water. So in order for liquid water to solidify, the bonds need to form between the water molecules. And since we know that when bonding forms there is a release of heat, we know that the phase change from liquid to solid is exothermic.

[Chem_Mod]

As I mentioned in class I am so pleased to see Excellent Discussion!

:-)