We take that into account by looking both at the average per state, but also the average and median per region. As you will see with many large states, some areas get much more snow than others. For example, Arizona is a very large state with extreme variance in climate, ecosystems, and elevation from one end to another. Moisture is a huge factor in snow production which means that sometimes states experience conditions that can be too cold for snow.Īverage snowfall is calculated to represent what anyone in the state can expect to experience over the course of winter, but that isn’t exactly accurate, especially when discussing any state that has either large or distinct regions. You might think that the states with reputations for being the coldest would also be the snowiest, but that’s not the case. Storms will get their start over the Great Lakes and then pass all the way from Minnesota to Maine. Because moisture is an essential element needed to form clouds and snow, very cold air blows across a large, warmer body of water, causing a large snowstorm. The flakes that become the largest move down through air slightly warmer than 0℃ and stick to even more ice crystals.Ī lot of heavy snowfalls occur around the Great Lakes region due to something called the lake effect. Another way snow falls is through the collection of tiny ice crystals that eventually stick together, becoming heavy enough to fall to the ground. Most storms are born from a phenomenon called “frontal lifting,” where a warm and cold airmass collide, causing two different events, 1) due to the lesser density of the warm air, it’s pushed up and over the mass of cool air and 2) essentially freeze-drying the moisture in the warm air, creating snow.
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