Too Cold to Snow?

[jaydeehess]

http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/spwebcam.cfm

Is the link to the webcam at Amundsen Scott - the southern pole observatory.

You will notice that is surrounded by - snow. The temperature as I write is, according to the website, -33 C - and this is summer there...

I think (and I am no meteorolgist) that the determining factor on whether it will snow or not is - humidity, not temperature. If the air temp is below freezing and there is humidity - it will snow.

It is surrounded by snow because very little of the small amount that does fall from year to year ever melts. That the temp during the southern hemisphere summer (close to the summer solstice) is -33 C bears this out.
Its a glacier at that location.

 

[ponderingturtle]

I think it's not that cold->no snow, but that lack of cloud cover->cold and lack of cloud cover->no snow. Wherever you live, your coldest days of the year are likely to be clear since cloud cover helps to hold in heat overnight. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will have snow on your coldest days because a (usually) necessary condition to have one of your coldest days is lack of cloud cover.

Add that to colder air haveing less moisture, and it is unlikely to snow below a certain temp. If it was say -60 why is there enough moisture in the air to come out as snow?

 

[ponderingturtle]

Of course, then it hits the great lakes, picks up plenty of water and dumps it all on Buffalo. But, then, that's what you get for living in Buffalo.

But buffalo is also no where near as cold as say Iowa

 

[Loss Leader]

But buffalo is also no where near as cold as say Iowa

Average February temperature of Des Moines, Iowa - 24.7 degrees. Average February temperature of Buffalo, New York - 24.5 degrees. They look pretty close to me. (sounce)

 

[I less than three logic]

Are we only talking about water snow, because just recently the Cassini spacecraft took some pictures of Titan that may show methane “snow” on some of the mountain peeks. Titan is pretty cold, about -180C or -290F ish.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20061212.html

 

[tkingdoll]

Y'all need to read this great book, Can Reindeer Fly by Roger Highfield.

http://www.amazon.com/Can-Reindeer-..._bbs_sr_2/002-8425968-3050460?ie=UTF8&s=books

It answers the snow question brilliantly, and more.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Average February temperature of Des Moines, Iowa - 24.7 degrees. Average February temperature of Buffalo, New York - 24.5 degrees. They look pretty close to me. (sounce)

All I know is that my uncle always talks about how cold it was, and he lives in NY and was raised in michigan. So it might be locaion in the state, and it might have a higher standard deviation on the average as well.

 

[TjW]

Add that to colder air haveing less moisture, and it is unlikely to snow below a certain temp. If it was say -60 why is there enough moisture in the air to come out as snow?

Because if you raise the air mass up to where it's -60, it will hold even less water, and it has to go somewhere.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Because if you raise the air mass up to where it's -60, it will hold even less water, and it has to go somewhere.

Yes it got dumped out when it was going from say 30 to 5 degrees F