# snow being good for the ground
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 11, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625 "2004-10-11T13:13:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/1 "2004-10-11T13:13:36Z")
Is it true that snow is good in the winter?
If there is much less snow than usual, the ground freezes and this hampers growth in the spring?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/2 "2004-10-11T13:52:02Z")
Yes. Given similar ambient temperatures, the ground will freeze harder if exposed than if covered by a blanket of snow because, odd as it might seem, the snow acts as an insulator (actually, the air trapped inside and beneath the snow is what does most of the insulating).
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/3 "2004-10-11T13:52:21Z")
Two parts. First, the ground needs water in the winter as in the summer to maintain the soil moisture. Some droughts happen in the winter. Second, snow acts as an insulator for the ground, and without it, the ground freezes more deeply.
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/4 "2004-10-11T15:39:47Z")
I don’t know as that the \* ground \* needs snow, but the plant life certainly does. Without snow, the ground freezes deeper and harder (and does lose moisture), so plants and bulbs that are borderline for that particular growing zone may die back.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/5 "2004-10-11T15:47:16Z")
Part of the conceptual hurdle with this is that we tend to think of ‘cold’ as an entity that has separate existence from ‘heat’. In fact there is only heat and the transfer of heat - ‘cold’ is the comparative _absence_ of heat.
Icebergs and hot coals are both ‘warm’ - it’s just that the former is rather less warm than the latter.
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/6 "2004-10-11T16:08:07Z")
Ergo, the snow is warmer than the air, and keeps the ground warm.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/7 "2004-10-11T16:44:03Z")
> [@Philster](#):
>
> Ergo, the snow is warmer than the air, and keeps the ground warm.
Not unless you have magic snow that produces heat. Most snow I’ve seen was too inert to support an exothermic reaction. It should be at the temperature of the air around it. It insulates by trapping air and preventing convective heat loss from the ground. You won’t get the same insulating effect from a layer of solid ice even though it’s made out of the same stuff as snow.
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/8 "2004-10-11T17:52:15Z")
I was being funny.
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### Author:  [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/9 "2004-10-11T17:58:25Z")
Ha! That´s what you thought. Why don´t you leave the dangerous work to professionals, son? Somebody´s liable to get hurt. (Probably in a funny way like getting kicked in the balls or losing an eye…)
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### Author:  [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/10 "2004-10-12T01:14:57Z")
So maybe we should cover our yard with a wet blanket?
yes, I’m kidding
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### Author:  [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/11 "2004-10-12T03:23:11Z")
I’ve occasionally read about post-thaw snow as being particularly good for the ground, and that farmers would plow it into their fields. I’ve never figured out what in the snow might be helpful, since it’s just water - it’s not like there’s nitrogen in there or anything, is there?
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/12 "2004-10-12T03:28:19Z")
No nitrogen, but it does contain dihydrogen monoxide.
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/13 "2004-10-12T07:25:49Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#):
>
> dihydrogen monoxide
Ooh…dangerous stuff. Did you know that Dihydrogen Monoxide is directly involved in the deaths of thousands of people worldwide _every year_? And DM contamination is making much of our underground drinking water supply unsafe.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snow-being-good-for-the-ground/268625/14 "2004-10-12T08:04:38Z")
> [@vanilla](#):
>
> So maybe we should cover our yard with a wet blanket?
>
> yes, I’m kidding
Not so fast; agricultural fleece (not a wet blanket, but a dry, gauzy one) is quite widely used; this seemingly insubstantial material, when properly applied, traps a thin layer of air at soil level and can actually make a significant difference to soil temperature.