Forty Words for Snow?

There are 40 words in Finnish associated with snow and ice, but allegedly there is no verb in Finnish for snowing. The best they’ve got is “sataa lunta“, or “it rains snow”.

So what are the 40 terms for snow?  They sort into six groups:

▪️Frozen precipitation that is still falling

1.- lumi: snow
2.- pyry: snow shower
3.- myräkkä: snowstorm
4.- rae: hail
5.- räntä: sleet
6.- tuisku: snow shower with strong wind
7.- laviini: a small avalanche

▪️Frozen precipitations mixed with water

8.- hyhmä: snow floating on top of water
9.- loska: very wet snow; snow, water and mud mixed together
10.- sohjo: slush; snow and water mixed together

▪️Frozen precipitations over big masses of water

11.- ahto: pack-ice (broken & refrozen ice)
12.- ahtauma: a formation of pack-ice
13.- jää: ice
14.- kide: ice crystal
15.- kohva: gray ice formed from wet snow
16.- paanne: multi-layered ice (typically waves crash on top of another and freeze)
17.- railo: pressure ridge in ice
18.- röpelö: uneven ice
19.- tökkö: ice with frost on top

▪️Frozen precipitation over the ground

20.- iljanne: a thin layer of snow atop ice
21.- hanki: a even layer of snow on the ground, especially if it is enough for skiing
22.- huurre: rime; granular frost (like the one you can find inside your freezer. Coincidentally, your freezer could be up to 20 degrees Celsius warmer than the temperature outside. You don’t believe me? Check out this photo)
23.- härmä: frost
24.- kinos: snow drift; a loose pile of snow, especially one formed by wind
25.- kaljama: a thick layer of ice on the ground. Something that made me fall from my bike many times, actually
26.- kuura: hoarfrost; frozen dew
27.- nietos: a large, hard pile of snow (could be refrozen)
28.- nuoska: “snowballable” snow, usually formed when powdery snow melts a bit
29.- polanne: a hard layer of compacted snow
30.- tykky: large chunks of snow, especially when frozen onto trees
31.- viti: freshly fallen powdery snow

▪️Frozen precipitations that suffered alterations from humans or animals

32.- avanto: a hole in ice
33.- jotos: reindeer tracks in snow
34.- latu: a ski trail in snow
35.- rannio: a reindeer path in deep snow

▪️ Onomatopeyic verbs (i.e. words that imitate the natural sounds of things) for “walking over the snow”

36.- nirskua
37.- narskua
38.- kirskua
39.- nitistä
40.- narista