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The purpose of this article is to present the development of multifaceted research on snow cover conducted by Polish researchers in various parts of the world since the end of the 19th century up to the modern times. The paper describes Polish studies on physical and chemical properties of snow cover, its long-term changes, relationships between snow cover and climate, impact of snow cover on environmental conditions and human activity. This work is also an attempt to show the contribution of Polish snow-related research to the international achievements in this fields.

One way to determine in a comprehensive manner the impact of selected weather factors on the human body is biothermal-meteorological classification of weather. In this paper the typology by K. Błażejczyk was used. On the basis of this typology there were 169 different states of weather separated occurring in the years 1976-2010 on IMGW synoptic station in Lublin-Radawiec. In this period the type which occurred with the highest frequency was cold weather. That frequency reached on average 33% during the year, with maximum in November and February (over 45% of days). The type comfortable weather occurred in 11% of days during the year, with maximum during autumn (October, 23%) and spring (April, 22%). Very hot weather, with highest values of thermal sensations has occurred with frequency of 23% in the analyzed years. It was noted since May to September, mainly in July and August. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]