John Wheeler: The quality of the snow is critical to the severity of the winter

FARGO — A winter season without much snow cover is basically bound to be a warmer-than-average winter. The reflective quality even of old, dirty, crusty snow, is so much greater than that of dirt, that much of the warming energy of the sun is reflected into space by the snow on the ground. The weather pattern may well warm up again after snow, but it must blow in air from a much warmer place.

However, not all snow is the same. Historically, most of our coldest cold spells and coldest winters have occurred when the winter snow pack has been deep and has remained fresh and sparkly. Winter cold can be deepened by the radiation of terrestrial energy out into space, particularly at night.



Old, crusty snow, even deep snow, does not radiate this energy as well as fresh, shiny snow. This is why our winters with frequent snows, even little dustings, to keep the snow white and clean, also tend to be the coldest winters..