History Main / SnowMeansCold

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* Played very straight in ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' -- when Elsa loses control of her powers in the middle of the summer, the countryside quickly turns cold and snow begins to fall.

** ''Franchise/StarTrek'':

* The novelization of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' averts this. While the probe's blotting out the sun causes snow in many cities, in St. Petersburg, it is too cold to snow.

* Subverted in ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'', when the Surfer's passage causes snow to fall on the Great Sphinx outside Giza, Egypt ... ''without'' a corresponding drop in temperature.

A popular shorthand in fiction is to use snow as a direct indicator of how cold the weather is, and the amount of snow indicates the amount of refrigeration. The reasoning is that snow falls when the temperature is cold, so when the temperature is ''very'' cold there should be ''lots'' of snow. This is not how it works in real life. The short version is that snowfall (and other forms of precipitation for that matter) is based more so on humidity than anything else, and the colder it gets, the less likely you'll have humid weather: ergo, once it gets cold enough, you'll actually get ''no'' snow whatsoever. In fiction, though? When the temperature drops, get ready for a blizzard no matter what.

A popular shorthand in fiction is to use snow as a direct indicator of how cold the weather is, and the amount of snow indicates the amount of refrigeration. The reasoning is that snow falls when the temperature is cold, so when the temperature is ''very'' cold there should be ''lots'' of snow. This is not necessarily how it works in real life. The short version is that snowfall (and other forms of precipitation for that matter) is based more so on humidity than anything else, and the colder it gets, the less likely you'll have humid weather. In fiction, though? When the temperature drops, get ready for a blizzard no matter what.

A popular shorthand in fiction is to use snow as a direct indicator of how cold the weather is, and the amount of snow indicates the amount of refrigeration. The reasoning is that snow falls when the temperature is cold, so when the temperature is ''very'' cold there should be ''lots'' of snow. This is not how it works in real life - the colder it gets, the less likely significant snowfall is. In fiction, though? When the temperature drops, get ready for a blizzard.

For more details for the scientific reasons involved, see [[UsefulNotes/SnowMeansCold the Useful Notes page.]]

* ''Series/TheDailyShow'' recently had a field day with people who tried to use this trope to "[[YouFailLogicForever prove]]" that {{global warming}} wasn't real.

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* In the ''DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Sky Pirates!'', which takes place in a PocketDimension that runs on RuleOfFunny, when the Doctor's companions find themselves in a cabin on an ice planet, they periodically open the door, say "T'aint a fit night out for man nor beast" and get hit by a flurry of snow. Eventually, they find the penguin with the bucket and make him stop.

** To be fair, while snow in and of itself doesn't disprove global warming, the fact is that winters in the US have become progressively colder and snowier over the past two-decades[[http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2014/04/30/twenty-years-of-winter-cooling-defy-global-warming-claims/#5237bc03e523]], so pointing out that the presence of snow is inconsistent with global warming predictions has some merit.

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* Whenever a large snowstorm occurs, expect to see members of certain political factions ranting about how "the climate can't be getting warmer because of all this snow!" or something to that effect
** However, the increase of snowfall at this point ''is'' a symptom of climate change. Namely, it is caused by a decrease ice on large bodies of water in winter, allowing more liquid water to evaporate and ascend into the atmosphere in winter and come down as snow.
*** Except that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) explicitly predicted that “Milder winter temperatures will decrease heavy snowstorms.” Oops.

* In ''BeakmansWorld'', every episode is [[BookEnds begun, ended,]] and [[ReactionShot occasionally interrupted]] by a scene of two [[FunnyAnimal talking]] [[EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins penguins]] watching the show from the South Pole. It is perpetually snowing during all of their scenes, which is particularly interesting because in one rapid-fire Q&A session, Beakman explicitly points out that the South Pole actually gets very little snow.

** While snow in and of itself doesn't disprove global warming, the fact is that winters in the US have become progressively colder and snowier over the past two-decades[[http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2014/04/30/twenty-years-of-winter-cooling-defy-global-warming-claims/#5237bc03e523]], so pointing to snow as inconsistent with global warming predictions is not necessarily wrong.

* Subverted in ''Film/FantasticFour: Rise of the Silver Surfer'', when the Surfer's passage causes snow to fall on the Great Sphinx outside Giza, Egypt ... ''without'' a corresponding drop in temperature.

* In DC's ''FinalNight'' CrisisCrossover, (in which the [[PlanetEater Sun Eater]] does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin) there was a lot of snow. Although the point was made that as it continued, the snow would eventually stop, because all the moisture would have already frozen out of the air.
* {{Storm}} from ComicBook/{{X-Men}} is sometimes shown to make it snow in the middle of the savannah in flashbacks. (At least it's not a desert.)

* The original ''TransformersGeneration1'' cartoon episode "Fire In the Sky" has the Decepticons tapping the Earth's geothermal energy and chilling the planet. The Autobots become suspicious when it begins snowing in July at their desert base.
* In the ''GIJoe'' miniseries "The Revenge of Cobra", the Joes attack Cobra's desert base to stop the villains from using their rebuilt Weather Dominator. Among Destro's weather attacks is an instant snowstorm.
* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' episode "Take Me To Your Leader," Shredder and Krang use a Solar Siphon to drain the sun's energy and make the Earth cold. The turtles discover something's amiss when it starts snowing in July.

* In ''SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends,'' Spidey and Iceman first met during a LetsYouAndHimFight situation. Iceman got Spider-Man's attention by causing a freak blizzard during the summer. Iceman wasn't seen actually throwing snow around to do it (as comic Iceman would likely have to. Making ice constructs and changing weather patterns aren't the same power; he isn't Storm.) but appeared to be just willing it to happen.

* Played with in the ''ZigAndSharko'' episode "Cold Snap". In it, the island and surrounding sea is suddenly covered in snow and ice, but it only snowed briefly to cover the area in snow and ice. Otherwise, the snow doesn't fall.

* On ''GeneralHospital'', [[MadScientist Mikkos Cassadine]] used "carbonic snow" to instantly create a blizzard in Port Charles during the middle of a long hot summer.

** However, the increase of snowfall at this point ''is'' a symptom of climate change. Namely, it is caused by a decrease of large bodies of water having less ice in winter, allowing more liquid water to be evaporated and ascend into the atmosphere in winter and come down as snow.

* In ''SpongeBobSquarePants'', it always snows in Sandy's treedome during winter. This appears most prominently in "Survival of the Idiots", but it also pops up briefly in "Bubble Buddy".

* An episode of ''CodeLyoko'' saw XANA try to bury France in an EndlessWinter to get at the protagonists. It was already snowing, but it was there to drive home the point that the temperatures were dropping deep into the negatives; hell, [[spoiler:Yumi ''almost'' dies of hypothermia in Ulrich's arms, only to be saved by a return to the past]].

* Averted in ''TheIncredibles''; Frozone can't generate ice in a burning building because of the lack of humidity. Of course, in normal conditions, he's able to summon impressive amounts of ice from thin air, possibly because he lives in a coastal city and can also use some of the water in his body. This is another example of RealityIsUnrealistic: a major byproduct of most combustion is [=H2O=]; Frozone should not have a problem finding water in a burning building.

** If she's manipulating the weather, couldn't one argue that she's making it humid enough to snow, since it's a super power?
*** If the desert wasn't humid to begin with, then [[{{Handwave}} it implies]] she has the power to ''create'' water where there was none.
*** Creating water where there was none is about as unscientific as making heat disappear, after all.
**** Well, since energy (heat) and matter are interchangeable, one could say she's turning the heat into water. The difference in scale can be chalked up to WritersCannotDoMath.