On 14 Nov 2006 08:35:16 -0800, "Robert M. Gary" wrote in
.com:

wrote:
One of my 8 year old son's class assignment questions reads, "How can
you look at the clouds and know if it is about to snow?". Never having
seen snow, I hadn't the foggiest idea. Asked a few friends and none
knows either! A quick search on the internet but came up blank,
probably because I haven't given the keywords that might elicit the
correct answer. Wonder who here (Dubai, UAE) came up with such an
irrelevant question!

Any Canadians here who can help? Or anyone near Chicago (snows there,
right?)?

I'm from California but wouldn't the cloud be full of snow if its
getting ready to snow? Can you see the snow in the cloud?

I'm from Buffalo, and I have seen a fair amount of
snow both here and in Syracuse (which receives about
four or five more feet of snow than Buffalo does,
on average).

I can't see the snow in the cloud myself before it
falls. I haven't heard of any reliable method of
predicting which cloud will drop snow and which
won't.

I have recognized rainfall at a distance of a
couple of miles under the right conditions (across
a lake or in an open field in flat terrain). I've
never seen snow falling at that distance, though
perhaps that's because I don't spend enough time
outdoors in the winter.

Marty
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