melt first? I don't know the answer and as I watch our snow melting areas around the trees are bare and in the yard it's still covered. I don't know if the trees are drinking down the moisture or if the dark color is absorbing more sun and heat. Is Bill Nye in the house?
-Depending on the temperature and wind, snow fall is intercepted by trees by their branches making the the ground snow cover thinner in the first place.
-The snow then melts often as it is still falling and drips to the ground and thus melts even more snow.
-Tree branches being upright and dark colored collect and convert solar radiation and again more heat to melt Snow.
-The root mass of trees forms a shallow mound which in effect also spreads snow (the surface area is increased over that of a flat surface) and also forms a slanted surface that collects more solar radiation.
-Tees allow less heat to escape at night due to radiational cooling and lenghten the melt time.
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