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THE COOLING EFFECTS OF SURFACE SNOW COVER

METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY

Surface snow cover cools high and low temperatures from the values they would be. Three types of latent heat can be absorbed from snow and they are melting, evaporation and sublimation. During the day, just like clouds, snow cover is a good reflector of shortwave radiation from the sun. This is especially true of fresh snow. At night, snow cover is a good emitter of longwave radiation.

Often record low temperatures occur on a night with surface snow cover. The sublimational and longwave cooling from the snow cover makes the low colder than it would otherwise would be. During the day, evaporation and melting promote cooling. This along with reflection keeps daytime temperatures cool.