How can it be “too cold to snow” when it snows on top of mountains and in countries with much colder climates?

Question

Where I am from (UK) people often say “it’s too cold to snow”. How can this be true when it snows in the Artic and on top of mountains?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

They mean that the humidity is too low relative to the temperature for snow to occur

Not enough water in the air to snow

Cold air holds less water so it being to cold to snow is more about cold and dry conditions. Furthermore many colder climates such as the tops of mountains and the artic are snowy because the snow almost never melts but because the air there is dry they also don’t recieve that much snow.