Why can it be well below freezing, with and even colder windchill but if the sun in shining snow and ice will melt?

Question

At first I thought maybe it would be like having a torch in a freezer but nope there would be a temp difference. So because it’s 5 f degrees outside with a -5 below 0 windchill how is it snow and ice are melting?

In: 1

Answer 1

Note that wind chill is only relevant to humans and similar warm-blooded animals; it doesn’t apply to ice and snow. If the air temperature is above freezing then water won’t freeze no matter how low the wind chill temperature.