Britain is in the grip of another spell of wintry weather, as an Arctic blast sweeps across the country. Parts of the UK woke up to snowy weather this morning (March 9), with cold temperatures and wintry showers expected to persist until Sunday.
According to the Met Office’s forecast for Nottingham, snow is expected to continue locally through this afternoon and into the evening. It may potentially turn to sleet overnight, though heavy snow is again forecast from 6am onwards tomorrow morning.
Temperatures are expected to pick up again from Sunday, when they are forecast to peak at 11C. But there’s one question that’s on a lot of people’s minds today as they look out of their window - why isn’t the snow sticking?
READ MORE: Nottinghamshire snow live updates as Met Office warns of heavy snowfall and disruption
How cold does it have to be to snow?
The Met Office says that precipitation falls as snow when the air temperature is lower than 2C. If the air temperature is above 2C, snowflakes will melt and fall as sleet, or - if the air temperature is higher than this - as rain.
Temperatures do not have to be below zero in order for it to snow, and the heaviest snowfalls generally occur when the air temperature is between 0C and 2C.
Why isn’t the snow sticking?
There are a number of reasons why snow might not stick on the ground. In particular if the ground temperature is any higher than 2C, it is likely that any snow that falls will melt on contact with the ground.
Snow is also less likely to settle on ground that’s already wet. This is because water is often warmer than the ambient temperature, and therefore snow which falls on wet ground is likely to melt - although it may stick later on if the snow continues into the night, when temperatures fall further.
There are two main types of snow: powdery ‘dry’ snow and ‘wet’ snow. Dry snow falls through cool and dry air and is good for winter sports like skiing and snowboarding, while wet snow - better for building snowmen - falls when the temperature is slightly above freezing and snowflakes melt around the edges, then stick together to form bigger flakes.
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