It was so cold that . . .
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I have heard there is a point where its too cold to snow, where the air cannot hold moisture. True?
The two ingredients required to produce snow are moisture and cold. Snow doesn’t form unless the atmospheric temperature is at or below freezing. If the ground temperature is warmer than freezing, the snow will melt as it falls. If ground temp is low enough, the snow will stick. So while it can obviously be too warm to snow, it never really gets too cold to snow. Snow can occur at extremely low temperatures, but typically doesn’t, because super-cold air tends to be dry. Temperature also effects the type of snow. Snow that falls when temps are close to freezing typically holds more moisture, making it heavier and wetter. As temperatures drop, moisture level usually does too, making the snow lighter and fluffier. While it never gets too cold to snow, snow does become a lot less likely as temperatures drop to 0°F or below. Here’s what our friends at the National Snow and Ice Data Center have to say about it: https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/snow/science-snow
OMG! How AWFUL!!!! Give me a tropic isle anyday!!!!
In today's Almanac (December 9, 2023) there is an article "10 Myths About the Cold" that states that, contrary to common belief, you do NOT lose most of your body heat through your head. You are contradicting yourself, Almanac!
We apologize for the confusion. They are actually saying similar things. The key is that, as the “10 Myths About the Cold” starts out saying, if you are not wearing any protective winter clothing to keep you warm, you will lose about 10 percent body heat through your head, somewhat proportional to surface area. However, if one is wearing protective clothing on all parts of the body except the head, the head is the most likely place where heat can escape. That’s where the “50 to 70 percent of body heat is lost through the top of your head, but only if the rest of your body is covered up” comes in, and why the “10 Myths” article indicates in general that if you are bundled up, you lose more of your body heat (than the usual 10 percent) through the top of an uncovered head.
Hope this helps!
It gets so cold in Minnesota that sometimes we have to light matches and thaw out the light bulbs so we can turn them off.
Just goes to show, you need a sense of humor to live in 'Cold Country'. LOL!
I experienced 60 degrees below 0....In the hospital where I worked,we could not get the patients out of bed, and there was frost on the baseboards in the hospital.Walked home with a wool scarf over your nose in order to be able to breathe. The following year,I left for Hawaii and never returned to Canada!
Yes, these stories are true. I live in Alberta. Just this past December, 2017 the temperature was a crispy -43c, between Christmas and New Years. Keep your car plugged in, so the battery stays warm, keep your pets indoors, hunker down until it warms up! And it always does!
I lived in northern Minnesota on the iron range. One winter it was so cold that when people talked their word's froze as they tried to speak! When the thaw came in late July the whole range area was A thunderous roar of random word's being uttered!!
I moved south to central Minnesota as I just couldn't take the cold any longer being 65 year's old. Much better here. It was only 17 below last night and tomorrow it is going to shoot up to 1 below!!
