Faster snow melt?? 50 and rain or 80 and sunny? (warm, temperature, 2013)

[papafox]

Maybe a hard question to answer, but would snow melt faster with 50 degrees with 1'' of rain over a 24 hr period (completely overcast of course if rain is falling in the first place)

or

Would it melt faster in the sun when it is 80 degrees over that same time frame??

I know there would almost NEVER be snow left over when its 80, but I'm talking about hypothetically of course.

Any idea?

[Cambium]

Many other factors involved, not just temps and rain. How old is the snowpack? Is it cloudy? Is it heavy rain or steady light rain? What month is it? Is the snowpack in shade? How deep is the snowpack??

I kept track of my snowpack since Feb 1st. 50s and rain did squat with a 6 week old snowpack.. So my answer would be 80s & sun.. 100% faster than 50s and 1" of rain.

[Onefair]

It depends on the humidity. I have had 2c snow melt rapidly in rain and snow in May last ages at 18c with desert like humidity.

[divisionbyzero0]

Originally Posted by Onefair

It depends on the humidity. I have had 2c snow melt rapidly in rain and snow in May last ages at 18c with desert like humidity.

Dewpoint.

[nei]

Originally Posted by Cambium

Many other factors involved, not just temps and rain. How old is the snowpack? Is it cloudy? Is it heavy rain or steady light rain? What month is it? Is the snowpack in shade? How deep is the snowpack??

I'd assume give how warm it is in both those scenarios the snow pack is relatively condensed with a temperature around 32°F. The rain is one inch over day, I don't think it would make a difference whether it's any faster than that. Water has a lot more heat content than air, my guess is that the rain would make more of a difference, but it's only a guess. Wind is an important factor for the melt via 80°F air, if there's no air mixing [hypothetically] the air immediately next to the snow would cool to the snowpack temperature and prevent further melting, a windy day would melt more snow than a calm day.

If the dewpoint is high (much higher than freezing) the air would condense on the snow. Low dewpoint would mean a lot of the snow would sublimate.

[Shalop]

Over here, I don't remember a day when it hit 80F and there was snow on the ground.

Maybe April 9, 2013 ??

Were there still piles from Nemo? Probably not

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It probably happens in places like Amarillo or Lubbock. Will have to search...