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

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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?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Because air is transparent and doesn’t absorb sunlight, but snow is opaque, and while it’s mostly white, it can still absorb sunlight and start melting, but air really doesn’t heat up when sunlight shines through, it heats up from the ground, which takes time to warm up

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