Completely off-topic help needed :)

Andrew Gideon wrote:
On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 07:39:38 -0800, joe wrote:


You Can't tell by looking at the clouds......come on


Sure you can. If you get a snowflake in your eye when looking at the
clouds, it's snowing.

Laugh

- Andrew


And if the flake is embedded in a waterdrop?

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

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!

There are two things that anyone who lives were I do can easily
tell you, 1) you can't look at a cloud and tell if it is going
to snow, and 2) Eskimos don't have any more works for snow than
people who speak other languages (English, for example).

It snows at least a trace on more than half the days here for
some 8 or 9 months of the year, and nearly half of the days even
in the months that have less snow. (Not that it ever adds up to
much, as we only get about 2 feet total in a whole year.)

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

"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)

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote in message
...
joe wrote:
You Can't tell by looking at the clouds......come on



You definitely get some clues from the clouds. Every time I've ever seen it
snow, it's been cold but not too cold (right at freezing but not too much
below or above) and there has been a low heavy looking stratus layer of
clouds. They look relatively dark, indicating there's a lot of moisture and
the cloud layer is fairly deep. Now, when I see these conditions, it doesn't
necessarily snow. But every time I've seen it snow, I see those conditions.

I can tell if it is going to snow when seeing one of those clouds 50% of the
time! g
--
Jim in NC

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?)?

Thanks much in advance and apologies to the rest,

Ramapriya


If the clouds look darker in color, then precipitation is more likely.
If the surface temperature is below zero, then it is likely to turn to
snow. But there is not a whole lot more you can conclude.

Note that these are all probabilities with lots of exceptions. Dark
clouds don't always mean precipitation, you can get virga
(precipitation that do not reach the ground), and you can get rain when
the surface temperature is below zero (freezing rain), and you can get
snow when the surface temp is above freezing (sleet).

Having lived in Canada and the U.S. midwest, I have seen plenty of
snow, sleet, freezing rain and everything in between.

On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:58:04 -0900, (Floyd L.
Davidson) wrote:

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!

There are two things that anyone who lives were I do can easily
tell you, 1) you can't look at a cloud and tell if it is going
to snow, and 2) Eskimos don't have any more works for snow than
people who speak other languages (English, for example).

It snows at least a trace on more than half the days here for
some 8 or 9 months of the year, and nearly half of the days even
in the months that have less snow. (Not that it ever adds up to
much, as we only get about 2 feet total in a whole year.)

Is the answer, "When the clouds are above an igloo?"

Don