EVER TOO COLD TO SNOW?

Written by: Brian Neudorff

As I was checking my twitter account (you can follow me my twitter account is BrianNeudorff or follow StormWatch8) I came across this comment from someone I follow, "Ugh... Snow. Although, it was too cold to snow before, so this is probably an improvement, cause it's warmer, no?"

The idea that it is too cold to snow is a common misconception, that probably originated from fact that bitterly cold temperatures, even at total saturation (100% relative humidity), holds very little moisture. The truth is, it can never be too cold to snow on Earth.

Very cold air is dense and wants to sink, and sinking air usually equals a stable atmosphere. A more appropriate saying would be, it is "too dynamically stable to snow" This means the atmosphere lacks lift to form clouds and precipitation to snow, but living along the Great Lakes, when we get really cold arctic air we can see very light lake effect snow showers & flurries. This happens because we are adding more moisture to the air from the lakes & as the air arrives on shore it is lifted by the land and can form snow showers.

The fact that snow piles up year after year in Arctic regions, where temperatures can get as cold as -50 degrees illustrates that it is never too cold to snow.