Why Does Snow Pack Better Near the Melting Point?

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 3'0" snowman that I made today, Saturday 2-25-23, in Chicago. This morning it was too cold 26 degrees, for the snow to pack, but by noon it was just above freezing, and the snow was disappearing from the warm ground below. I had a narrow window to make the snowman, and I got it together just in time.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 4'1" snowman that I made today, Friday 3-10-23, in Chicago. The temperatures are a little above freezing, so the snow packed very well.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 3'6" snowman that I made today, Tuesday, on Halloween 2023. We had our first snow of the season today in Chicago, and we got just enough for a snowman. It packed well with temperatures in the mid 30's.

 

[JT Smith]

An Australian acquaintance of mine once told me that it does snow in some part of Australia, especially those around the center of the continent. You never have winter vacation there?

I suppose many people in Australia prefer not to think of Tasmania as part of the country. Kind of like we in the U.S. do with Texas. But in any case it snows in Tasmania, Australia every winter.

It often snows a little in the summer as well.

And it is typical that the temperature is hovering around zero, often conducive for making snowballs or snowmen.

 

[Haborix]

Kind of like we in the U.S. Texas do with Texas the U.S.

Fixed that for you.

 

[JT Smith]

Fixed that for you.

Ha! I think you're right that there is a mutuality to the feeling between TX and at least some parts of the U.S. I'm not sure that's true of TAS and the rest of Australia though. At least it's not the sense I've gotten from talking to the locals.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 4'4" snowman I made today, Sunday November 26, 2023, in Chicago. Temperatures were just above freezing, so it packed very well. I did need to use a dowel rod through it and several inches into the ground to keep it upright, because there wasn't enough snow to put between the layers and at the base.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 4'0" snowman that I made today, Sunday New Year's Eve 2023 in Chicago. The snow packed very well, but I had only about a half inch of snow to work with. I used a dowel rod going through it and into the ground to keep it from tumbling over, since I didn't have any extra snow to put at the base and between the layers. Happy New Year. :)

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 5'2" snowman that I made today, Saturday 1-6-24, along with the snowman from New Year's Eve which is now 2' 10" tall. The snow packed very well today with temperatures just above freezing in Chicago.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is the latest photo of the snowmen in my backyard, taken today, Wednesday 1-10-24, by my neighbor lady. Yesterday we had a lot of rain and melting snow in Chicago, so the first two snowmen shrunk a lot, but I was able to make a 3rd one which is the 3'4" one on the left. The middle one is from Saturday when it was 5'2", but it is now at 3'8", and the one on the right is from New Year's Eve, and is now 2' 10". Temperatures were just above freezing in Chicago yesterday, so the snow packed very well, but I had a limited amount of snow to work with. They had forecast a possible 6" of snow, but fortunately most of it came down as melting snowflakes or rain, and I didn't need to shovel any snow from the sidewalks.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

We had more snow today in Chicago, so I built a 4th snowman this morning. See the above photo. This one started out at 4'6", but is now shrunk to 3'10". Temperatures were a couple degrees above freezing, so the snow packed very well, and I had plenty of snow to work with.

 

[OCR]

Temperatures were a couple degrees above freezing, so the snow packed very well. . .

Lol, the snow won't pack at all here.. .

Click to enlarge. . .

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above are the latest photos of the snowmen in my backyard in Chicago=I'm now up to 5. The 5th snowman I made today, Monday January 22, 2024, from snow that we had on Friday, but temperatures were too cold for it to pack. Today it warmed up to 33 degrees, and the snow packed fairly well.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above are the latest photos of the snowmen in my backyard in Chicago. I now have 6=this is the first year that I have ever had more than 2 at the same time. The one I made today, Tuesday January 23, 2024 is 4'3" tall. It is also from Friday's snow, like the one I made yesterday. It was too cold to pack until yesterday.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 2'6" snowman that I made on Friday 2-23-24. The photo was taken Saturday 2-24-24. This was the only snowman I was able to make this February, as we've had very springlike weather for much of February in Chicago. This snowman took a lot of work because there was very little snow to work with, and it came down too cold or too dry to pack well. (I'm posting this one a week later, because I forgot to post it a week ago). Very different from January where I had 6 snowman in the backyard a month ago. (see pictures above in previous posts).

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 2'7" snowman that I made Friday 3-22-24. Packing conditions were good, but I had very little snow to work with. The photo was taken today, Saturday 3-23-24. We had almost no snow this March in Chicago. This is the first snowman I was able to make since about a month ago in February.

 

[DennisN]

Packing conditions were good, but I had very little snow to work with.

I can see that. It seems you used up all the available snow.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 2'7" snowman I made Friday, 3-22-24. @DennisN This photo was taken just after I built the snowman. You can get a good idea of how much snow there was=and see where I rolled the balls to make the grass bare. By the next day, all the snow was gone (in the other picture), but I thought it would be worthwhile to post this picture as well. :)

 

[sbrothy]

Always nice to see grownups having/taking the time to goof around in the snow. :)

You think there's some psychology at play here? Missing your childhood, perhaps?

Nah, you're probably just goofing around. It's funnier with children though :P

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 3'6" snowman that I made today, Thursday 11-21-24. We had our first snowfall of the season today in Chicago.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 4'4" snowman that I made today Friday December 20, 2024 in Chicago. Packing was ideal with temperatures at 35 degrees, but there is a cold wind out of the north, so the temperature will be dropping shortly. It's likely to be around at least through Christmas.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 5'6" snowman that I made today, Sunday 1-12-25, in my backyard in Chicago. Most of the snow came down 2 days ago, but it was too cold to pack. Today the temperatures warmed up to about 33 degrees, and the packing was ideal. It was very easy to make, the packing was so good.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is what is now (today Saturday 1-18-25) a 4'4" snowman that was 5'6" last Sunday. Yesterday the temperatures got to 42 degrees in Chicago and stayed in the upper 30's for an extended time. Today the weather has turned much colder and the forecast is for temperatures to be below freezing for perhaps a week or more with even a couple of days where it may reach zero degrees.

The snowman shrunk a lot yesterday and was even leaning a lot and I had to straighten it by slicing through between the base and middle sections and moving the top part a few inches, and then packing some snow between the layers. Looks like it may be around for at least another week. :)

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 5'0 snowman that I made today, Saturday February 15, 2025, in Chicago. It snowed on Wednesday, but it was 27 degrees then and too cold to pack. Today it warmed up to about 33 degrees, so I was able to get the snow to pack. It also snowed a little more last night.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 2'6" snowman that I made today, Sunday 3-16-25. We had very little snow today in Chicago, so it took a lot of work to even get a 2'6" snowman. It packed very well though with temperatures around 33 degrees.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 3'6" snowman that I made today, Thursday 3-20-25, in Chicago. The snow packed fairly well at about 33 degrees, but I didn't have a lot of snow to work with.

 

[DaveC426913]

Y U have all this snow? It spring.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

We had a ton of rain in Milwaukee yesterday. Guess 100 miles south, it turned to snow!

 

[Charles Link]

@Greg Bernhardt We had mostly rain in Chicago yesterday as well. It turned to snow around 2 am and accumulated a little around 3 am. I put most of the snowman together around 3:30 am when I made it to be 3'0". It snowed more over the next 3 or 4 hours though, so when I got up this morning at 8 am, I rolled the balls a little more and made it into 3'6". The overnight low was around 32 degrees.
Note: I used a dowel rod to hold the 3'0" snowman together, so it was easy to take apart and re-roll the balls. I didn't have enough snow to put any between the layers.

 

[sbrothy]

I think that this is completely wrong. The ability to make snowballs is related to the wetness of the snow. Dry snow is not sticky at all, whatever the temperature, and I think the amount of pressure needed to even partially melt it is beyond what you can achieve with your hands. When the snow is wet, no pressure is needed: simply taking a snowball and lightly putting it on fresh snow is enough to make additional stick to it.

There is often a link between the wetness of the snow and temperature: wet snow usually falls when temperatures are close to freezing. But I have often seen dry snow when the temperature is just below freezing. Likewise, old snow that has been on the ground all winter is rarely sticky, whatever the temperature.

Caveat: all this is based on personal experience of having lived nearly all my life in regions where snow is abundant. I have never dug deeper as to what actually makes snow wet and dry.

I'm impressed that we had to come this far into the thread for someone to offer an actual explanation!