Is it ever too cold to snow?

Answer 1

No. The air always holds some moisture, regardless of its temperature. Moisture falls from clouds in very cold air in. the form of tiny snow crystals.

Frigid air, particularly polar air that sweeps into a region in the wake of a cold front, produces scant snow. In contrast, heavy snowfalls occur when relatively mild air is brought to a region by a warm front. (A front is the boundary between warm and cold air masses.)

The fact that snow piles up year after year in Arctic regions illustrates that it is never too cold to snow.

Answer 2

James H is correct
to all you misinformed people both the arctic and antarctic circles are desert enviroments it does not snow there winds sweep the ice crytals into the air giving the perception of falling snow. the air in fact is too cold too allow the evaporation of water to occur thus the air is never saturated to the point where it cannot hold onto the moisture thus no snow

Answer 3

No, snow is ice in a more gentler form. Precipitation is, like all ice, needed to make snow. Without precipitation, we would probably all die. (You know first the plants, then the herbivores, the carnivores, then omnivores) Although snow might take on a tougher form through colder weather, it would just turn to ice, but it should still be classified as snow. The definition of snow, from what I remember from my 6th grade pre-ap science class is: Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent hexagonal ice crystals that fall in soft, white flakes. So, no, I do NOT think that it is EVER too cold to snow.

Answer 4

No,it can never be too cold to snow,this theory comes from the fact that the coldest temps occur under a clear sky at night ,clear skies=no cloud =no snow,saying this snow showers often form from a milder injection of air ie the sea or any large body of water which will always be warmer than land masses in winter , in England the funnel shaped body of water between Essex and Kent (Thames Estuary) can often generate a string of fairly local and heavy snow showers for SE Essex & N Kent, another prime example in England is around the Wash which has a similar effect for South Lincolnshire NE Cambridgeshire and NW Norfolk .However it would be true to say that the heaviest snowfalls usually occur when temps are around freezing level due to the fact that warmer air will hold more moisture. With temperatures well below freezing you will witness much smaller flakes of a fine powdery nature and with temps at or just above freezing the flakes will normally be much bigger (unless they are formed from drizzle known as snow grains) this again is due to the moisture content and the binding of smaller flakes to one another during their decent. Snow will settle more readily with temps below 0-c but with ground temps often slightly lower than air temps it will often accumalate especially during heavy falls with air temps a couple of degrees above ,and depending on intensity, dew point etc.can reach ground level at +7-c melting of course on impact. Tales of snow falling at much higher temps are simply not true and usually the result of Hail falling and not melting immediatly during an intense summer thunderstorm.

Answer 5

it might get cold enough so that water cannot evaporate and thus you would not get any water in the air to make snow... so it might be possible but there is always going to be water in the air and in the right conditions it could probably snow even at the coldest temperatures...

Answer 6

no, and if you think i am wrong, try telling that to the polar bears, when it is snowing at -50 degrees, the conditions might be wrong for Snow but not the cold temperature

Answer 7

The average temperature is about 33 degrees for the snow to stick to the ground.

Answer 8

If I had to guess, I would have answered this question with a Yes. But wasn't 100 percent sure, so I did some internet research and here is what I found from those who has more expertise on this matter. Below are the edited version of their answers. The complete answer can be found with the links at the end of each answer.

From: the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC):
"No, it can snow even at incredibly cold temperatures as long as there is some source of moisture and some way to lift or cool the air. "
Link: http://nsidc.org/snow/faq.html

From: the NOAA National Weather Service Office - Sioux Falls, SD:
"...Generally, the amount of water vapor in the air (liquid water in its gaseous state) is related to the temperature. When the air temperature drops to its dewpoint temperature there is net condensation and water vapor condenses onto condensation nuclei ... However when the atmosphere is very cold there is not as much water vapor available to condensation nuclei so super-cooled cloud drops cannot grow as quickly as with a warmer air mass... As temperatures drop to near zero, the atmosphere becomes "starved" of water vapor: it becomes too cold to snow!"
Link: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/science/faqwinter.php

From: From Suite 101 - Science and Meteorology :
"... It is never too cold to snow, though the conditions which bring the coldest temperatures are usually non-conducive to producing precipitation. But, it is also true that the colder the temperatures, the less water vapour the air may contain. In fact, the amount of water vapour at saturation drops by about a factor of two for every 10 Celsius degrees (18 Fahrenheit degrees) drop in air temperature. At very cold temperatures, 40 below zero (C or F) and colder, snow can actually fall out of the cleanest, clearest blue sky without intervening clouds. Temperatures need not be so cold if there is dust, or other minute particles, in the air on which the water vapour may deposit. When condensation nuclei are present, diamond dust may form at temperatures just below minus 20oC (0 oF). At such temperatures, the water vapour in the air spontaneously forms ice crystals which slowly settle earthward. When these falling crystals are caught in the light, they sparkle like gemstones, a weather condition known appropriately enough as diamond dust. "
Link: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/science_sky/105189

From The Weather Prediction dot Com
METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY
"...In actuality, earth's troposphere is not too cold to snow but rather it is "too dynamically stable to snow". Dynamic stability may be present due to low-level cold air advection, a lack of upper level divergence, and/or a lack of low level convergence. Also, if dynamic lifting does occur it may not produce precipitation that reaches the surface due to low relative humidity values in the lower troposphere. ... In a situation when it is said "it is too cold to snow" there is in reality not enough lifting of air that causes snow to reach the surface. The phrase ... probably originated as a misapplication of the relationship between temperature and the maximum amount of water vapor that can be in the air. When temperature decreases, the maximum capacity of water vapor that can be in the air decreases. Therefore, the colder it gets the less water vapor there will be in the air. Even at very cold surface temperatures significant snowfall can occur ... Even at very cold temperatures the air always has a capacity to have some water vapor. If the air cools to truly frigid Arctic temperatures such ... that the moisture capacity of the air will be so low that likely not much snow can occur. Only at these extremely low temperatures is the phrase "it is too cold to snow" fairly valid. "
Link: http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/222/

Answer 9

yes

if you go to the south pole it never snows (note to who ever said it did: it does not snow, you get snow storms because the layer of snow on the ground it swept into the air by strong winds)

for there to be snow there needs to be water vapours to rise

if its too cold then there'll never be a cloud in the sky (and there is never cloud cover in the south pole), thus no snow

Answer 10

Yes if it is too cold snow won't form, there needs to be a warm current for snow to occur!!

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow for more info!!