As I was saying ... The temperature of the ground is usually not as low as that of tin roofs with no heating. But it also makes a difference in how wet the snow is. Snow is quite a complex phenomenon. Anyway, where is a snow scientist when you need him! Does anyone know the word for "science of snow"? I couldn't find it. I meant that the phenomenon the OP is inquring about is not mysteriously specific. That cabin there isn't the only one where such an accumulation of snow would have happened.
There is something that some people have seemingly missed. If you were to own that cabin and use it, you'd want to keep your doors and windows clear of the snow, this means manually going out and shovelling it out of the way. That might be the reason for the snow being a lesser level and being "non-uniform". As for why it didn't melt on the roof, well it would be prudent to have an insulated cabin otherwise you'd be spending either a great deal of money on fuel or time looking for wood (which you then have to let dry out. There might be a stack of wood located somewhere around where the snow has been shovelled for this reason). The snow once settled also adds to insulating the cabin. You'll also notice that if you have snow laid on a surface and a surface cleared of snow, that the cleared area can melt far sooner than the area still covered. This is just down to a absorption since light is reflected for the most part from snow. (That's why if you watch a thawing certain patches thaw faster because they absorb energy from the sun and heat up quicker). Hopefully that covers a few of the finer points.
the snow falls off the flipping roof you idiot thats why it doesn't fall off the ground though does it??
Like somebody alluded to earlier, the snow on the ground (in certain places) is likely to be as deep as the snow on the roof. The picture does not give enough to analyse. So many factors... Apart from the ambient heat present around the building (also around trees and other biological matter), wind, snowdrift, you have the problem of insulating layers of snow, dew points, ground surface temps, surface roughness, slip, slide and viscosity coefficients between varying property layers, thermal properties of all of the materials in the photo and those outside of the photo. Ground temps, ice formation, reflectivity coefficients all come into play. What you have asked is impossible to answer from a mere photo. However, I would say that the snow on many parts of the ground around that building is as deep, if not deeper than what is being shown on the roof. And a lot of it will be down to local geographical effects.
It is funny to read my old responses and disagreeing with them. I guess it is possible for the snow to be higher on the roof, and possible explanations were already given in the thread. it is never late to make a correction... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ..LOL..I see the opposite, amount of snow on the ground is much higher than the amount of snow on the roofs of the cabins. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Certainly. That looks like about 5 feet of snow on the ground compared to 4 feet on the cabin roof. The snow on the ground almost obscures the CABIN. That said usual it is that way because someone shoveled a path and it's piled higher.
The picture in the OP is taken from a perspective which is deceiving to the eye. The snow on the roof and the ground are in correct proportion. Wind in these parts can do some strange things in sculpting and moving snow. When I walk out to feed the horses in winter, I may encounter smooth compacted snow trail and snow almost to my knees, in traveling 100 feet. The picture is a winter cabin at Alyeska Resort in Southcentral Alaska in the USA. The rack on display looks to be barren land caribou. Here is another picture of snow, cabin roofs and perspective. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Apparently we've got several people here who've never experienced snow OR who just simply aren't very observant. (Besides lacking general common sense.) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Drive around a neighborhood a few days following the snowfall and actually pay attention to the snow on the roofs and on the ground. Compare them. What I've seen on *many* occasions is far more snow on some houses than others and even still present when the ground is almost cleared. Some houses have FAR more insulation in the attic than others. While some houses are unheated because the occupants have gone south for the winter. With practically no heat to rise inside and reach the roof, the roof will be much colder than the ground which DOES have a heat source beneath the surface. If you were to shove a thermometer three feet or so into the ground, you'd find that there's *always* residual heat there that is constantly working it's way toward the surface. There is NO such heat source inside a vacant house, in fact just the opposite - the house forms a thermal barrier that insulates the roof from the heat stored and released from the ground. And that's the whole story, period. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
