Snow at night?

Question

It is snowing right now, and i have to say first that thats rare these days (say for the last 20 years) in this part of the country.

So i have to say that i dont know that much about snow at night.

I know during the day on a ski slope you wear sun block because the sun reflects off the snow..

but does the moon reflect off it also?

if i walked outside right now it looks like late evening. This is a bright town, but not that bright. its not NOON bright,, more like sunset or later bright.

please help me if you can.

ok i guess what i'm saying, is what is causing the twilight like effect?

its too dark to see if its over cast but i assume so

i walked outside and here's what i see.

the sky has a glow to it.. total over cast as far as i can tell. i figure the glow is from the city lights (plenty near by (about 2 blocks)).

Could the light thats bouncing off the clouds be mixign with the snow to display a twilight like situation? everything is visible around me.

Answer 1

You do not state if it is overcast or not. If the sky is clear, the moon tonight is reflecting off of the snow crystals, which can be quite bright and beautiful.

Answer 2

Snow is white. White is the color of things that reflect light of all parts in the visible spectrum equally.

white reflects all colors which makes it easiest to see.


Unlike say..red..which aborbs all colors but red..and thats why you see red.

Moonlight is sunlight..being reflected from the moon to earth then reflects from your snow and is distorted reflecting in all directions lighting up whats around you.

Unless you mean the moon has a light around it..in the sky. This is different this is light thats being distorted by ice crystals in the sky.

Answer 3

The snow reflects light. Any light. Normally the ground absorbs the light coming from the street lights, houses and cars, etc. This makes for very dark nights. The snow reflects this light back to your eyes, and since we are not used to this amount of light at night, it appears to be bright.

Answer 4

The light pollution is reflecting off the snow
If it is snowing right know how could the moon be out also

Answer 5

You'll be fine in the moonlight. The light reflected by the moon is a tiny fraction of what the sun puts out.
Just don't get too cold or slip on ice.

Answer 6

Yes, the snow reflects light, so it looks a little brighter out if the moon is showing.

Answer 7

Yeah moonlight does. I have some friends from Norway and they say even when the days are really short the moonlight reflects off the snow. It's snowing in portland....no school tomorrow.