Wet Gloppy Snowfall. Recorded February 2, 2016, 10am. Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area, near Ithaca, New York. © Lang Elliott.
It is early February in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. What begins as an idyllic snowstorm, with large, delicate snowflakes falling slowly and gently to the ground, quickly transforms as the temperature rises to well above freezing. The snowflakes begin melting before they hit the ground, turning into wet globs that splatter and smack as they strike the leaf litter. Such a unique, energetic soundscape, lying halfway between snowfall and rain!
A Note from Lang:
As always, recording rain is a challenge. In this case, I used my homemade rain setup, which consists of an open, cuboid frame wrapped in speaker cloth, with a thick layer of absorbent filters set on top. The goal, of course, was to record only the sounds made by the wet snow striking the leaf litter, while avoiding any sounds caused by melting snow hitting the mic frame itself or the absorbent filters above.
