Too cold to snow

[jimmer]

Remember that old saying "too cold to snow"

well the weather at mount Elbrus is -31c and its snowing. This got me thinking can it really ever be too cold to snow?

 

jim

[Clanad]

If the air cools to truly frigid Arctic temperatures such as -40 C and below then 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.
Even in these conditions, snow is possible...

[Loosehead]

In the UK, in the winter, when it's very cold (relatively of course) the weather feature necessary for it to snow is unlikely to form. Ie it is often high pressure. When this occurs the phrase "too cold to snow" is sometimes heard. clearly it can't literally be too cold to snow, I'm thinking -60 in the arctic and antarctic! So I always take it to mean it's too cold for the necessary weather feature for it to snow to occur.

[IndieSinger]

Have a look here at an old AnswerBank page (which can only be accessed via Google's cached pages now!)

 

[pedant]

You may have difficulty finding the questions but they're all there:

Question41549.html

[sherljim]

We used to live in Northern Alberta Canada, where the wintertime temperatures were frequently below minus 40 degrees (F and C are the same at minus 40).  It didn't snow much at these temperatures because the moisture capcity of the air is so low when it's that cold.  A phenomenon we did observe occasionally was "clear air snowing"  It would occur usually on a bright, clear, but very cold day and ice crystals would form directly out of the air and float to the ground - with not a cloud in sight