What is the warmest temperature recorded when snow has been observed falling?
Such records aren t kept, but Nolen Doesken of Colorado State University, has seen snow falling in Colorado at 50 Degrees. Snow drags down cool air and temperatures drop in minutes. Other kinds of ice can fall at higher temperatures. Doesken, who is assistant Colorado State Climatologist and author of The Snow Booklet, says the 50-degree snow came during “convective” storms, that is showers or thunderstorms, when the sun had warmed the ground, but the air aloft was still very cold. This is more likely at high altitudes, in places such as Colorado, during the spring. “April is a prime time for seeing this,” he says. In the Midwest, about the warmest temperature at which snow is likely would be around 40 degrees, he says. In both cases, the falling snow drags down cold air cooling the air near the ground soon after the snow starts. Still, he says, you could see snow falling when the temperatures are in the high 30s or even in the 40s. Snow forms when water vapor in the air turns directly
