Too cold to snow?

Question

Is the phrase too cold to snow true?
Can it actually be too cold to snow?
If so what temperture does this happen?

Answer 1

Cold air is dryer--the colder the air, the less moisture it can hold. Conversely, the warmer the airmass, the more moisture it can hold. Warm, summer thunderstorms can produce devastating amounts of rain in just a few short hours. When places experience huge snowstorms with tremendous amounts of accumulation, the temperature is rarely ever that cold, usually hovering around the 30 degree mark. While it is not likely it will ever actually become "too cold to snow" on this planet, there are times when the air is so cold that it simply cannot hold enough moisture to allow for much precipitation.

Answer 2

Believe it or not, it very rarely snows at the arctic and antarctica. There is lots of snow because it is never hot enough for what snow there is to melt. So what does fall stays there. I do not know exactly what the borderline temperature is, but I know that if it gets too cold, snow does not fall - it is more like ice. A bit like hailstones.

Answer 3

If that phrase was true then why would the Antarctic, which is the coldest place on earth, be covered with the stuff? I think people say it because when it is particularly cold in England it is a result of high pressure, and with high pressure there is very little precipitation (rain or snow)

Answer 4

It needs to be just warm enough at cloud height for them to condense into droplets that are then heavy enough to fall as rain, that then re-freezes as snow as they hit the cold air layer at ground level.

Just to make clear, hot air rises and cold air sinks, so snow formation relies on there being a temperature differential between the ground and cloud level.

Answer 5

yes its true, at 0 kelvin or -459.67 farenhight or - 273.15 celcius what ever you work in!! (sorry this bits edited in as my anz dident seem full enough) at this temp atoms simply stop functioning and the clouds with all that water would simply fall to the ground like some freekish ice astoroid! kinda like one big snow flake, that kills pepole! tee hee
(added more in i just keep thinkin bout it)
what i sed above is deffo true, beacuse as it gets colder more and more water drops freese to make snow and it happens gradually(so flakes fall over a period off time in diferent amounts depending on the drop off temp at the time etc), and if it god that cold it would all freese instantly and the one freekish snowflake thing would happen!!

Answer 6

The air can be too dry to have the moisture needed to produce snow.

Answer 7

When the temperature is so low that moisture cannot get it to the atmosphere, there is no water to form snow

Answer 8

In actuality, this is a false statement... however, the weather conditions can make it almost impossible to snow.

Answer 9

it is and it isn't
at 0 degrees we get freezing rain
below that we get snow
It usually doesn't snow when it is below minus 20 unless we are getting a blizzard.

24 years canadian

Answer 10

My father always used to say that, but it has snowed in PA at temperatures around zero.