How a recent flight caused snow over Denver

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A recent flight unexpectedly caused a light snowfall over Denver, though it did not accumulate. As the aircraft passed through a layer of supercooled water droplets, which is water that remains liquid below its freezing point, it triggered these droplets to freeze and form snow. This snow then fell over the city, demonstrating a rare instance of how aircraft can influence weather conditions by interacting with the atmosphere.

Source

Rasmussen, R., and Coauthors, 1992: Winter Icing and Storms Project (WISP). Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 73, 951–976, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1992)073<0951:WIASP>2.0.CO;2.

Additional Reading

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/01/27/airplane-snow-denver-flight/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/skywest-flight-turns-cloud-whisperer-221110864.html

https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2011-jul-02-la-sci-planes-snow-20110702-story.html