why do the brtish isles recieve little snow but are at a higher altitude than the united states?
357911
The prevailing winds and currents come more from the south in the UK, which makes it warmer than the same latitudes in North America, but they do get a good bit of snow.
78480
Why high altitude?  Tundra applies to lowlands as well,.
922889
Because air at ground level and a significant distanace above is rarely saturated - when it is, fog forms - which is a cloud on the ground. It has to be saturated a significant distance above ground or else you only get shallow areas of ground fog or dew/frost (if it is unsaturated say 50-200 feet above ground).\n\nBases of what we normally consider to be clouds rarely touch the ground because rising air motion is required to saturate the air and form the cloud. If it has to rise to do that, it cannot occur on the ground - though such clouds can be advected to a higher location and perhaps reach ground level there - or as is more common, the rising motion occurs up a slope with a cloud forming at some point along it.
81160
Just compare the North Pole and the South Pole. The South pole is on a continent that is mainly a high plateau (and has a higher average elevation than any other continent). The North Pole has a few islands close by, but is mainly sea ice and polynas. The South Pole as a result is markedly colder and drier than the North Pole. The topography at the South pole also creates much stronger winds due to orographic effects.
605807
Yes,it is a fact that it is cold at the poles where it practically snows all the time,but in the US temperatures don't drop that low.\nPeople say that-"it is too cold to snow" , because in this case the temperature is too low(for our geographical positioning) to "hold" water in the air which prevents it from snowing.\nHope that my answer has been useful!
945368
I live at the shore in NJ. We rarely get snow because the salt air turns the snow to rain.
438791
altitude.....higher altitude means lower air pressure.  Liquids, water included, vaporizes at lower temp when pressure lowers.  (a glass of water will boil at room temp in a vaccumn)
568737
the air is lower pressure at higher altitude which means it is thinner, so there is less oxygen. if they already have trouble getting enough oxygen, then they will have much more trouble.
669828
the difference is big.\nBasicaly an alpine glacier is a mountain glacier and it doesn't cover as much ground as the continental glacier.\nIt can be found in the high mountains where the temperatures are low enough for the ice to stay all over the year. Because of the temperature change their borders are not constant. Can be larger during the winter and smaller through the summer.\n\nThe continental glaciers are carachteristic for the poles. The cover enourmus surfaces like on Greenland, Arktic, Antharctik and lots of islands that suround them.
523421
The simplest answer I can give you is that the air doesn't absorb much heat from the sun (sunlight passes through it), while the ground does (the exception is ozone, which does absorb more radiation, and thus higher up in the atmosphere, there is actually a warm layer).  So the ground is actually what is doing the heating, and the higher you go in the atmosphere, the further you are from the ground, the cooler the temperatures.\nOf course mountains are ground... but air at the same height mixes about quite a lot, so while air near a mountain might be a bit warmer... the air in other places at the same height is well above the ground, so it's cooler overall.\n\nIn addition, air cools as rises, a second reason why its cooler higher up in the troposphere.\n\n\nSpace is really really really cold!  It's for the same reason.  The light from the sun itself isn't hot... it's when its absorbed by something, which heats it up.\n\nHope this makes sense, let me know if there is anymore I can help with here,\nGod bless,\nShane
499563
Ben Nevis in Scotland (this is also the UK's highest peak). Snowdonia in Wales, Scafell Pike in England and the, curiously named, Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland.\n\nOther ones of note are Ben Macdhui and Braeriach (Scotland), Garnedd Ugain(Wales) and Hellvellyn (England).Most of the UK's highest points, though, are in Scotland.
591984
It gets colder as you go up through the troposphere because the air is "thinner".\n\nThere is less atmosphere here due to less gravity.\n\nB/c there is less air, there will be less heat. Air is an insulator that holds heat. Less air = less heat.\n\n:)
498842
The probability of snowfall varies with season, location, and other geographic factors such as latitude and elevation. In the latitudinal area closer to the equator, there is a rather small chance of snowfall, 35° N and 40°S are often quoted as a rough delimiter. The western coasts of the major continents remain devoid of snow to much higher latitudes.\n\nPermanent snow covering is affected by factors such as the degree of slope on the land, amount of snowfall and the force and nature of the winds. As temperature decreases with altitude, high mountains, even near the Equator, have permanent snow cover on their upper portions, around 5300 m high. Examples include Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Tropical Andes in South America; however, the only snow actually to appear on the Equator is at 4690 m altitude of the southern slope of Volcán Cayambe in Ecuador (Google Earth images). Conversely, many regions of the Arctic and Antarctic receive very little precipitation and therefore experience little snowfall despite the bitter cold (below a certain temperature, air essentially loses its ability to retain water vapor). Here, the snow does not melt at sea level.
349893
So you can tell how tall they are, and so they're more visible from higher altitudes.  No joke, each section of 20 feet (in America at least) is red or white, and that way they don't blend into the sky the way steel blends into the clouds.
280135
Both reasons are correct.  The UV rays have less "stuff" to travel through in the air and atmosphere, so they have a stronger effect.\n\nAlso the snow does have a reflective and intensifying quality that it passes to the UV rays.
750290
The higher the colder
593456
It's high in latitude where plant & vegitation growth are very limited due to cold climate\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra