What makes it snow? Well, the story begins far into the heavens. Water vapor deep in the sky undergoes the process of deposition. Deposition occurs when water vapor in air below 0¡É switches straight into ice without existing as a liquid.

The chances of snow depend greatly on geography. In general, the higher the altitude, the greater chance it will snow. If one lives on top of a high mountain, he/she will experience snow earlier than in other lower places.

Although the ability to forecast snow continues to improve, predicting when and where it will snow is still difficult. The actual area where snow will fall can be significantly smaller than the area predicted by today¡¯s technology available. Also, extremely small differences in temperature define the boundary line between rain and snow.

Depending on atmospheric conditions, the amount of water contained in snow can differ dramatically between snowfalls. A large snowfall can sometimes occur even if the air on the ground is above freezing. Thus, snow will form in the atmosphere, and drift toward the ground¡¯s higher temperature.