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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Instead of thinking of things as colder or warmer, think of it as heat transfer. If you add head to 32 F snow, it’ll melt, if you remove heat from 32 F water, it’ll freeze. And there are three ways of either adding or removing heat, conduction (heat via contact), convection (heat via moving contact), and radiation (heat via non contact, i.e. magic).
Now, let’s say you wanted to make one of those freezing plates in an ice cream parlor (where they put the cream on a plate and scrape it as it freezes). Now, if the room is 70 F, how can you get something to freeze? You ensure that you are removing more heat from the plate, then you are gaining from the air.
The reasaon the snow is melting is because it is gaining more heat from the sun, then it is losing to what is around it.
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