Too cold to snow??

S

sledder66

New member
Jon,

I'm from Georgia and my wife is from Minnesota. She claims that it can be too cold to snow. I tell her that's horse hockey. Of course being from the South I'm told I know nothing about cold weather. Is it true? Can it be too cold to snow? - Thanks
 
K

kamikaze_bros

Member
sledder66 said:
Jon,

I'm from Georgia and my wife is from Minnesota. She claims that it can be too cold to snow. I tell her that's horse hockey. Of course being from the South I'm told I know nothing about cold weather. Is it true? Can it be too cold to snow? - Thanks
Click to expand...

Normally what creates the condition you're wife is referring to, at least here in Minnesota is called an "Arctic High Pressure". These things slide out of the Arctic and across Canada and when they center themselves over our area it gets really cold. Typical conditions during one of these high pressures are bright clear skies and little if any wind. The high pressure is what is preventing the snow. Obviously, I'm not the one with the impeccable meteorological qualifications, that would be John Dee. I'm pretty sure that for the right price John would provided you with a scientific dissertation if you wanted.
 
jd

jd

Administrator
Staff member
sledder66-

You are correct. It is horse hockey. kamikaze_bros gave an excellent example of why some might think it to be true with an arctic high not only bringing bitterly cold air, but also clear and very stable air.

I can add that as air gets colder, it is less capable of holding moisture. So it when it gets bitterly cold, it does get harder and harder for the atmosphere to form clouds and snow, but there have been accounts of snow falling in some bitterly cold air.

-John
 
scottiking

scottiking

Well-known member
Well whats up when its really,REALLY cold like -40, some days the sun is bright with no clouds and there is like crystals flying around in the air?
Whats that from!
Scottiking OUT




Administrator said:
sledder66-

You are correct. It is horse hockey. kamikaze_bros gave an excellent example of why some might think it to be true with an arctic high not only bringing bitterly cold air, but also clear and very stable air.

I can add that as air gets colder, it is less capable of holding moisture. So it when it gets bitterly cold, it does get harder and harder for the atmosphere to form clouds and snow, but there have been accounts of snow falling in some bitterly cold air.

-John
Click to expand...
 
jd

jd

Administrator
Staff member
Scotti-

I am not going to get into all the physics involved, but will just say that water vapor can remain a vapor at temps well below freezing. It needs something to attach to in order to form an ice crystal. That something can be another ice crystal, dust, salt, etc. It is called a hygroscopic nuclei.

Anyway, when you get really cold, like 40 below, then the vapor can go right to an ice crystal without needing the hygroscopic nuclei. So that is how you can end up with the ice crystals floating in the air when the temps are bitterly cold.

-John
 
F

frnash

Active member
Aaah, thermodamnamics…

See also:

Deposition: The process by which, in sub-freezing air, water vapor changes directly to ice (crystals) without first becoming a liquid.

Or, the opposite:

Sublimation: The process by which ice or snow transitions from the solid phase to the gas phase without passing through an intermediate liquid phase (water).
<hr width="75%" size="2">"endothermic phase transitions"
"triple points"
"phase diagrams"
"enthalpy of sublimation"
"enthalpy of fusion"
"enthalpy of vaporization"

Ahhhh, the joy of thermodamnamics - not! :)
 
K

kamikaze_bros

Member
frnash said:
See also:

Deposition: The process by which, in sub-freezing air, water vapor changes directly to ice (crystals) without first becoming a liquid.

Or, the opposite:

Sublimation: The process by which ice or snow transitions from the solid phase to the gas phase without passing through an intermediate liquid phase (water).
<hr width="75%" size="2">"endothermic phase transitions"
"triple points"
"phase diagrams"
"enthalpy of sublimation"
"enthalpy of fusion"
"enthalpy of vaporization"

Ahhhh, the joy of thermodamnamics - not! :)
Click to expand...

"DEPOSITION": It all make sense now. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why I always wanted to *&^% in my pants during a deposition.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top