"Darren Prescott" wrote in message
...
"Dave.C" wrote in message
.uk...
I know I'm getting boring but I'm sure most people are surprised it hasn't
settled more!
It's a theme that's cropped up on some Web based message boards as well.

The only thing I can say for certain is that given heavy enough snow (of the
big fluffy flake sort), it *will* settle, even if the roads are soaking wet
after rain/melted snow. Until today the last time I saw that in action was
the snow event in January 2004, which started with a few minutes of heavy
rain which turned to heavy snow and promptly settled.

Other than that, there's got to be an obvious reason why the snow's having
such trouble settling in this spell. I'd be tempted to say it's the
radiation absorbed during the day that's causing it to melt so quickly, but
that wouldn't apply to snow falling early in the day.

I first noticed this on Monday when there was a reasonable amount of sun,
then during the evening the first snow that gave a covering arrived.
Snow struggled to settle on the pavement across the street that would have
been in sun but settled without fuss on the other side that wouldn't
get any sun at all. I was wondering about this at the time and this seems to
explain it.

Even the 1cm covering I had this morning was quickly removed by the sun,
even though there hasn't been that much of it. Somebody else said that
quite a lot on isolation gets through cloud.
Given a max of just 1.9C today that tells you just how powerful the sun is
at this time of year compared to at the solstice.

Col
--
Bolton, Lancashire.
160m asl.
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co.uk
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co....rPictures.html