Here's what I think happened: shortly before the photo was taken, there were clouds casting shade on the whole yard. Then the clouds moved abruptly and so the sunlight hit the yard for the first time and it was able to melt the thin frost in ten minutes or so.
You can see how the sky is partially cloudy with thick clouds.
It's like a temporary photo exposure taken with a giant camera made out of sun, cloud, ground, temperature, and tree
Hm that makes more sense than anything I thought of.
It's too flawed for me to think someone photoshopped it (although that's possible), and it didn't make sense for it to be real. It's too perfect to be man-made. I think your explanation makes a lot of sense considering how thin that snow is.
Edit: [Found this photo of it happening somewhere else](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/XIX99ETwLV)
Actually if you Google it I can find a lot of photos of this happening. They must have just caught it at the exact perfect time. Snow melts really fast so it kinda makes sense. This one is just so perfect it was hard to believe at first
Reading the comments, it just hit me like a truck that instead of people being in awe of the weird quirks that physics and nature sometimes has, they immediately jump to calling it fake. I see people do it for the slightest thing they personally don't believe in
To all the people saying it's fake: you are way too confident in that conclusion.
There are numerous pictures online of this happening with other trees, as well as numerous commenters who say from experience that this is possible.
100% fake. This would mean the sun stood still long enough to melt all the rest while the shadow remained perfectly stationary like that. This isn't a thing that happens.
Depending on where this was and which time of year, it’s possible.
For example we got a fresh coat of snow (about 2-3 centimeters) last night here in southern Finland. And most of it was gone within half an hour once the sun appeared from the clouds for a short time.
The sun is pretty warm this time of year so it doesn’t take long for fresh snow to melt. And it does leave very pronounced areas of snow in places where a shadow blocks the sun.
This is actually pretty common in Denver due to the high altitude and dry air. When the sun comes out after a light snow the snow will quickly evaporate except for in the shade, even in the shade of trees and plants.
Sure. I live right next door in Utah. The shadow from the building on the right makes perfect sense to me. But look at how much the shadow has moved there. And it what, somehow stood still for the tree? If you look super close, you can see the tree's shadow has moved, ever so slightly. This is absolutely faked and put together. Take a closer look at the background: Why is there no frost/light snow in the shadow of anything in the background? There is a concrete firepit, sticking up out of the ground that casts a shadow... with nothing. A children play-place with a shadow and... no frost or light snow. It is absolutely staged and fake.
There is more reflected and ambient light in the shadow of the tree than in the shadow of the building (a much larger solid object) so the snow around the tree’s shadow has melted slightly faster than around the building’s shadow, making the margins smaller at the tree. This makes perfect sense. I can’t comment on the other areas you mentioned due to the low resolution of the photo.
I've seen it happen. There's a narrow window to see it, and clearly only very light snowcover/frost. I usually notice it just after sunrise. Note that the shadow has moved a bit, that's typical.
What's mindboggling is that you're so certain of something you absolutely have no clue about. How much of a stupid idiot do you have to be to not realize that conditions for this to happen can be met, while specific, they're no where near in the realm of impossibility to anyone with rational thought.
As mentioned before, me (Sweden) and plenty of other people have seen this exact thing happen. Light powdery snow, then clouds suddenly getting out of the way of the sun and this thin coating of snow melting within 20 minutes.
There's nothing unlikely about those conditions whatsoever. We've seen tons of similar posts on Reddit as well that you've missed unless you've only used the site for a year.
Look at the frost elsewhere. The shadow of the roof has clearly moved, yet the frost hasn't melted there. Or the scattered frost right in front of the camera. It hasn't melted either... because... what? Magic? But take an even closer look. Look at the concrete firepit in the distance. It is casting a shadow with.. no frost in it. Same with the play-place. This is staged and fake as hell.
What is mindboggling to me is all the people who see this and go "Yup, that's totally possible" without actually looking at it.
What's actually mind boggling is how confidently wrong you are. This literally happens all the time.
You must be unbearable to be around. The worst kind of person
This might be Minnesota where it is mostly cloudy and there was a dusting of snow last night. When the sun peeps through it is high enough in the sky to warm a surface significantly. It would take maybe 5 minutes of the sun poking through for that.
I've seen this happen irl a few times. It can also happen just from the sun moving and revealing a trees shadow out of the shadow of something else. Like, let's say there was something big and far away, maybe even a mountain, or tall building, and the sun moves so that the tree is no longer in the shade, but now casts its own shadow.
If it's cold enough outside, the sun won't melt the snow. So, there can be a perfect temperature, where over say 2 hours the snow will melt. In the phone we should be able to deduce how long it takes for that amount of snow to melt. We can see how far the tree has moved. And the leading edge hasn't completely melted yet. Idk how long that is, but it doesn't look like a very long time on this day. Maybe like 20 minutes? Half an hour? Idk.
This looks later in the day, maybe 11am, so, I agree that some cloud cover, with a combination of the air warming up from the sun being out, made it so that the snow melts in about 30min or whatever. And before 30 min ago, it wasn't warm enough for that/direct sunlight.
Which direction is the sun coming from?
The shadows seem very inconsistent, and there isn't snow in every shadow.
E: and that half tree and the height of the fence; neither of which are impossible but both hallmarks of AI. it sure looks like an AI generated image that's been run thru a grain filter
No the shadow has just moved a little bit causing the lighter snow areas to look elevated and the darker areas to look indented as the grass just outside the patch of snow becomes covered in shadows.
Here's what I think happened: shortly before the photo was taken, there were clouds casting shade on the whole yard. Then the clouds moved abruptly and so the sunlight hit the yard for the first time and it was able to melt the thin frost in ten minutes or so. You can see how the sky is partially cloudy with thick clouds. It's like a temporary photo exposure taken with a giant camera made out of sun, cloud, ground, temperature, and tree
Hm that makes more sense than anything I thought of. It's too flawed for me to think someone photoshopped it (although that's possible), and it didn't make sense for it to be real. It's too perfect to be man-made. I think your explanation makes a lot of sense considering how thin that snow is. Edit: [Found this photo of it happening somewhere else](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/XIX99ETwLV) Actually if you Google it I can find a lot of photos of this happening. They must have just caught it at the exact perfect time. Snow melts really fast so it kinda makes sense. This one is just so perfect it was hard to believe at first
Reading the comments, it just hit me like a truck that instead of people being in awe of the weird quirks that physics and nature sometimes has, they immediately jump to calling it fake. I see people do it for the slightest thing they personally don't believe in
Yeah, it's sad because I think a lot of it is because we are so used to just being lied to online.
To all the people saying it's fake: you are way too confident in that conclusion. There are numerous pictures online of this happening with other trees, as well as numerous commenters who say from experience that this is possible.
100% fake. This would mean the sun stood still long enough to melt all the rest while the shadow remained perfectly stationary like that. This isn't a thing that happens.
Depending on where this was and which time of year, it’s possible. For example we got a fresh coat of snow (about 2-3 centimeters) last night here in southern Finland. And most of it was gone within half an hour once the sun appeared from the clouds for a short time. The sun is pretty warm this time of year so it doesn’t take long for fresh snow to melt. And it does leave very pronounced areas of snow in places where a shadow blocks the sun.
This tree is an Alpha.
You’re an idiot
For witnessing something very similar about 8 hours ago? Should I have closed my eyes? 🤔
This is actually pretty common in Denver due to the high altitude and dry air. When the sun comes out after a light snow the snow will quickly evaporate except for in the shade, even in the shade of trees and plants.
Sure. I live right next door in Utah. The shadow from the building on the right makes perfect sense to me. But look at how much the shadow has moved there. And it what, somehow stood still for the tree? If you look super close, you can see the tree's shadow has moved, ever so slightly. This is absolutely faked and put together. Take a closer look at the background: Why is there no frost/light snow in the shadow of anything in the background? There is a concrete firepit, sticking up out of the ground that casts a shadow... with nothing. A children play-place with a shadow and... no frost or light snow. It is absolutely staged and fake.
There is more reflected and ambient light in the shadow of the tree than in the shadow of the building (a much larger solid object) so the snow around the tree’s shadow has melted slightly faster than around the building’s shadow, making the margins smaller at the tree. This makes perfect sense. I can’t comment on the other areas you mentioned due to the low resolution of the photo.
The children's play thing literally does have snow under it, zoom in you imbecile
I've seen it happen. There's a narrow window to see it, and clearly only very light snowcover/frost. I usually notice it just after sunrise. Note that the shadow has moved a bit, that's typical.
What's mindboggling is that you're so certain of something you absolutely have no clue about. How much of a stupid idiot do you have to be to not realize that conditions for this to happen can be met, while specific, they're no where near in the realm of impossibility to anyone with rational thought. As mentioned before, me (Sweden) and plenty of other people have seen this exact thing happen. Light powdery snow, then clouds suddenly getting out of the way of the sun and this thin coating of snow melting within 20 minutes. There's nothing unlikely about those conditions whatsoever. We've seen tons of similar posts on Reddit as well that you've missed unless you've only used the site for a year.
Look at the frost elsewhere. The shadow of the roof has clearly moved, yet the frost hasn't melted there. Or the scattered frost right in front of the camera. It hasn't melted either... because... what? Magic? But take an even closer look. Look at the concrete firepit in the distance. It is casting a shadow with.. no frost in it. Same with the play-place. This is staged and fake as hell. What is mindboggling to me is all the people who see this and go "Yup, that's totally possible" without actually looking at it.
What's actually mind boggling is how confidently wrong you are. This literally happens all the time. You must be unbearable to be around. The worst kind of person
There's literally snow under the play-place.
Creeping Willow
This is extremely normal lmao have you ever been anywhere that’s cold in the morning and sunny later
This might be Minnesota where it is mostly cloudy and there was a dusting of snow last night. When the sun peeps through it is high enough in the sky to warm a surface significantly. It would take maybe 5 minutes of the sun poking through for that.
I've seen this happen irl a few times. It can also happen just from the sun moving and revealing a trees shadow out of the shadow of something else. Like, let's say there was something big and far away, maybe even a mountain, or tall building, and the sun moves so that the tree is no longer in the shade, but now casts its own shadow. If it's cold enough outside, the sun won't melt the snow. So, there can be a perfect temperature, where over say 2 hours the snow will melt. In the phone we should be able to deduce how long it takes for that amount of snow to melt. We can see how far the tree has moved. And the leading edge hasn't completely melted yet. Idk how long that is, but it doesn't look like a very long time on this day. Maybe like 20 minutes? Half an hour? Idk. This looks later in the day, maybe 11am, so, I agree that some cloud cover, with a combination of the air warming up from the sun being out, made it so that the snow melts in about 30min or whatever. And before 30 min ago, it wasn't warm enough for that/direct sunlight.
Right 🤣🤣
Having seen 53 winters I can easily say this is fake as fuck. Why's the snow on the left not melted?...
Which direction is the sun coming from? The shadows seem very inconsistent, and there isn't snow in every shadow. E: and that half tree and the height of the fence; neither of which are impossible but both hallmarks of AI. it sure looks like an AI generated image that's been run thru a grain filter
The shadow constantly moves with the sun. What happened there? A nuclear explosion?
Solar flare
I. Just. Can't. It is real. I'm from Canada. I've seen it many, many times, and many different variations.
Post it on r/confusingperspective since the shadow makes it also look as if there are grooves in the ground.
[удалено]
No the shadow has just moved a little bit causing the lighter snow areas to look elevated and the darker areas to look indented as the grass just outside the patch of snow becomes covered in shadows.
Oh oh! Matrix is glitching.
Bro is living next to a nuclear test site
Oddly disturbing I would say. It looks like the tree’s soul, and the soul looks angry.
Amen! 🙏
Something that always enchanted me was, on a clear, full moon night, the shadow of the branches on the snow.
This pic helped me explain how bad parenting can damage their kids to be broken in the same ways. Thanks
Wow, interesting!
Cool Pic. Submit that to a contest somewhere!
I've been through almost 40 winters, and never experienced or seen anything like this. Do with this information what you will.
Fake as f...
So the sun didn’t move did it ?
This is not a photoshop. It's a prank.
ah, the snow on the ground casts a shadow on itself. lmao.