I don’t know if it’s the wet versus dry and crunchy type of snow that causes this or what, but something happened this morning that made me wonder again why thsi is:
See, where I live, snow flurries are rather common. And, sometimes you get them, and only the roads and my drive and sidewalks and stuff have that dusting. And, none seems to stick to the grass, or at least not much. (Could it be the ground is warmer than the cement?) And yet at other times, it sticks tot he grass and there’s a fine coating there, but it’s hardly on the roads. And of course, as other times it’s both places.
My guess is surface temp has something to do witht his, but I don’t know why.
Diferrent surfaces cool at different rates, and goelogical heating affects the ground, but not a surface like your car.
Metal cools rapidly, so snow will stick the the top of your car, but you might notice the street (which is black and absorbed heat all day) is just wet. Plus the street is being warmed by mother earth.
Snow might land on short grass and accumulate, but on longer grass where the blades trapped some air and had some insulation you’ll notice it doesn’t accumulate.
These are just some examples.
Even a roof on a house acts differently, because attic venting is designed to keep the roof the same temp as the outside to prevent ice damming. So a roof should have snow accumulate if the snow is accumulating anywhere. You would think the roof is warm from the house, but roofs are desinged NOT to be warmer than the air.