The Difference The Smallest Bit Of Elevation Makes Between Snow And Rain

[The Eagle]

Saw this picture online taken in Ireland recently and found it very intriguing and it really shows just how narrow the line is between snow and rain and different elevations, or at least snow settling and not...

Just thought I would see if anyone has other excellent pics like this of a snow line. Above one side of some of the fields is covered - the other side is green!

Edited March 6, 2010 by The Eagle

[Nick L]

Brilliant pic there. While down in Minehead last February I saw something similar. Anybody who has been to Minehead will know that there is a big hill at one end of the town, and there was a dusting of snow at the top but nothing at sea level. Also, when you went literally a mile inland there was a dusting of snow. Just illustrated marginal perfectly. Don't think I have a photo of it unfortunately.

[MartUK]

Great picture,goes to show how much of a fine line things can be.

[The Eagle]

Brilliant pic there. While down in Minehead last February I saw something similar. Anybody who has been to Minehead will know that there is a big hill at one end of the town, and there was a dusting of snow at the top but nothing at sea level. Also, when you went literally a mile inland there was a dusting of snow. Just illustrated marginal perfectly. Don't think I have a photo of it unfortunately.

Above also illustrates just how remarkably uniform the line between snow and no snow is across the picture. I also live by the sea and know what you mean - just a km in land of me can be white and id be surrounded by green. If you travel inland sometimes it changes to snow cover pretty much instantly. The source of much irritation for me I can can tell you!

Edited March 6, 2010 by The Eagle

[Bolton67]

Reminds me of Winter Hill in Bolton which stands at 1400 feet above sea level.

Many a morning in winter i saw this view from my bedroom window, while we in the town had rain.

[Cheese Rice]

Great pic, excellent example.

Anyway doesn't ever happen here, perhaps it's because I live in the suburbs so it is less noticeable, only right in the city centre it happens to a certain extent, but I think it is more to do with heat of buildings etc. You can definitely notice the snow line in the countryside but there never is one in the suburbs, wonder why that is.

[LomondSnowstorm]

Same thing happened here at the end of February, when we had a cm of snow which washed away by 4pm and anywhere above the 'high road' (roughly 100m asl, 40m above my house) had at least 4 inches. I think the top of the hill, from 400-500 metres, saw it fall entirely as snow, and I reckon that around 2-3 foot accumulated there.

[Lynxus]

Its like that in glos most winters

Snow up on the Cotswolds, Then down here nothing.

A 2 minute drive up and its snowing.

[Terminal Moraine]

Yes, Ive seen scenes like that on many occasions. On a few occasions I've walked across a field which has changed from brown to white over a linear distance of 50 mts and with a change in altitude of less than 5 mts.

An excellent photo' to illustrate the point by the way.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Do you know where that picture was taken from?

Seen that kinda scene many time here on both the Galtees and Knockmealdowns. Even at my parents house, the fact that it's just 90m asl resulted in snow there while rain and sleet landed in areas just 2 or 3km away on a few occassions.

[Marcus_surfer]

Great picture! Yes i have seen that this winter here, some fields had snow and others were green, i think this was because of very localised snow showers though, it looked weird!

[chionomaniac]

Excellent illustration there, TE.

This winter other members in Brighton have had a lot less snow than me in marginal situations with them being just a little bit lower down than me. This just shows how critical just that little bit of altitude can be in these marginal situations. Thanks for putting that picture up!

c

[johnholmes]

Its the sort of picture one sees regularly from the A1 end of the M18 to the higher part, maybe 2 miles going towards the M1. Also on the M1 with slight increases in height having snow then none. Happens a lot around the Peak District but a great shot to illustrated just how sharp the snow line often is.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

often happens where I get more snow than the town, notable one was 9th march 99 where I saw 1 inch and the town (3 miles to my NW 23m lower) saw rain

also I remember 29/30th Dec 09 where nick2702 had a decent amount being 45m higher, my snow that evening didnt lie

Edited March 7, 2010 by mark forster 630

[The PIT]

Gets even more interesting when see three hills around the same height the middle one has hardly any snow while the other two are fairly well covered.

High Wycombe has two hills both the same size and it was quite normal to have snow falling on the more eastern Hill and rain on the western hill.

[Weather-history]

Great pic.

Here's something, has anyone seen the inverse, snow on low ground but not on hills?

I have this winter. A streamer of snow showers developed during the early hours of 31st January and we had a covering here and yet Winter Hill had none at all and the surrounding Pennine Hills as well apart from old snow. Very strange to see.

[Thundery wintry showers]

There is a good view out to the west from Cleadon in Tyne and Wear, and in marginal frontal setups and/or setups with a wind off the North Sea, a similar contrast can be observed, a sudden transition from snowfields to nothing as little as a mile or two out to the west, owing to altitude and distance from the coast.

More rarely it happens the other away around, the equivalent of what Kevin describes can arise when east-coast snow showers come just a couple of miles inland so there is snow at Cleadon, and looking out to the fields and hills to the west everything is relentlessly green.

[damianslaw]

Travelling between Windermere at 120m to Kendal at 50m in snowy conditions often shows how elevation makes a big difference. Recently on the 21st Feb, Kendal had nearly 5 hours of continuous snowfall, yet the snow was very wet and almost melting as it hit the ground giving a slight 1-2 cm cover at best which rapidly melted once the snow fizzled out, whereas Windermere had a 1-2 inch cover which covered everything all trees were laden and it dodn't melt once it stopped, also it only snowed for 2 hours. Whether the snow was of greater intensity in Windermere I'm not sure, probably..

On many occasions I've seen snow cover suddenly appear at about the 80m mark, and sometimes seen Kendal only 8 miles away have no snow cover when Windermere has been covered in a few inches. The infamous 5/6 feb event saw 18 inches in Windermer yet Kendal only saw a foot, on this occasion the precipitation was much heavier in Windermere. Intensity of precipitation is very much another factor, generally the higher you are the heavier the precipitation..

[Bolton67]

Great pic.

Here's something, has anyone seen the inverse, snow on low ground but not on hills?

I have this winter. A streamer of snow showers developed during the early hours of 31st January and we had a covering here and yet Winter Hill had none at all and the surrounding Pennine Hills as well apart from old snow. Very strange to see.

I've never seen anything like that before great pic.

Like i said earlier, many a time i saw winter hill covered in snow while from my old house (4 miles) from winter hill saw nowt.

Edited March 7, 2010 by Lancs_Northants

[La Bise]

Talking about Winter Hill, I'm pretty sure there must have been times when it snowed at the top of the mast but rained at the bottom.

[osmposm]

I remember being amazed as a boy when reading of the guards at the Empire State Building in New York having a snowball fight on the observation deck while it rained on Fifth Avenue below - not as surprising as it first sounded, since the deck is nearly 370m (over 1200 ft) high.

In cities - and certainly here in London - with the added effect of urban warmth, the difference can be very pronounced. When I was younger I often journeyed up to Hampstead Heath seeking both the height (100m+) and the lack of buildings that would often turn my sleet into good, settling snow there. Nearer to home, I have occasionally noticed much the same contrast while travelling a mile up the road and gaining just 35 metres in height.

Edited March 8, 2010 by osmposm

[Guest]

We have certainly seen the effects here of a small amount of elevation translating to big differences in snow/no snow. Not even necessarily elevation, but slightly different locations too. In this pic the hills on the right have snow only down to about 200-300m while on the left there is snow on land which is at 50-100m:

(pic isn't the best due to 3.1M camera, so squint a little :lol:)

[Nick L]

often happens where I get more snow than the town, notable one was 9th march 99 where I saw 1 inch and the town (3 miles to my NW 23m lower) saw rain

also I remember 29/30th Dec 09 where nick2702 had a decent amount being 45m higher, my snow that evening didnt lie

Yeah, got a couple of inches out of that. Unfortunately, during the early hours it turned back to rain. If it stayed as snow I would have got at least 4-5 inches.

[guitarnutter]

I've seen snow on Peter Crouch's head with rain at ground level.

[Summer of 95]

Seen some really strange snowline effects this winter; most notable was that the snowline on the S Shropshire Hills (Long Mynd, Stiperstones) was consistently 100m or more lower than on the Wrekin. Also I've never, ever seen Haughmond or Lyth Hill with snow on while the centre of Shrewsbury had none- even their extra height doesn't seem to help in the Shrewsbury Snow Vacuum. They typically have nothing while 10 miles south at the same height there's a cover. The snowline round here often lies at a set distance from Shrewsbury, rather than a set elevation.