"Neil Gould" wrote:
Recently, posted:

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?)?

Thanks much in advance and apologies to the rest,

If you look at the clouds and it looks like it will rain, but the
temperatures are below 32° F, it will most likely snow...

Rain clouds almost always are darker (denser) if rain is likely.
Snow doesn't produce the same effect. I'd guess that snow reflects
light, while water absorbs it, but I don't really know if that is
what is happening.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)