if its `too cold to snow` what happened in the antartica?

Question

reasonable and intelligent answers please...no dumbaas crap

Answer 1

I am a meteorologist, and while I can explain this to you, I don't have the time at the moment, so I'm giving you a link to look at that gives you lots of information that addresses your question. It's never too cold to snow - that is a myth that derives from the fact that many times in the US and Canada, when it's really cold, it's because of a strong and very cold high pressure system - and rain/snow doesn't occur much at all with high pressure systems, they occur with low pressure systems. When it is really cold in the US, usually the rain and snow is to the south.

That said, though it can snow when it's really cold, it's not nearly as common as when it's warm. This is because at very cold temperatures, there can not be much water vapor at all in the air (there can be much, much more at warm temperatures). Thus, the amount of moisture available for snow is very low. In fact, Antarctica is a desert, and the South Pole receives less than an inch of liquid equivalent precipitation per YEAR (the coast receives more).

So where does the snow and ice come from? Most of it is built up from year after year after year throughout thousands of years - and it never gets warm enough to melt. So anyway, take a look at this, it may help:
http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/weather/snow-ice.shtml

Answer 2

Well that "too cold to snow" really isnt true. In anartica, the humidity in percent is really high which causes percepition to fall as a result to snow because of the low temperatures. If the temperature is slightly above or below freezing, and the humidity is around 50 percent than its possible for a snowfall to occur(too low of a humidity would cause the percepitation to evaporate) Its the same deal with percepitation falling as rain. The humidity (as percent) has to be high, and temperatures in a reasonable state in order to make the water droplets reach the atmosphere and onto the ground

Answer 3

It doesn't snow that often in Antarctica. The closer you get to the pole, the less snow there is. This is because there is a high pressure system sitting over the Antarctic. Air in a high is descending and descending air produces no cloud. Without cloud there is no snow. Antarctica is a desert.

Snow does fall around the edge of the Antarctic continent but most of the ice that builds up there is from blizzards not from snow. Blizzards are snow and ice blown from one place to another, not falling fresh from clouds.

The Antarctic plateau is high, 3000-4000m above sea level at the centre. The wind blowing off the plateau is a katabatic wind assisted by the air blowing out from the high. Very strong winds pick up ice grains from the surface and blast them to the coast producing the blizzards. There is no temperature restriction on this activity.

If does snow in Antarctica, that's how all the ice got there. It is all from depositions of snow over a quarter of a million years or so but it is a little bit each year not a lot all at once.

Answer 4

I must agree with the previous poster. I live in Montana and it regularly snows at 20 below zero. I've never, (in my life) heard it as being too cold to snow!

Answer 5

Too cold to snow is a wive's tale and is inaccurate