Col de Porte Snow Forecast

A new method to work out where the finest, freshest powder snow is lying has been determined by the European Space Agency (ESA). The agency found that the freshest, lightest snow with the smallest snowflake grain size was the most reflective of sunlight bouncing back off it. Older snow tended to lose its granularity and also, the ESA found, its reflective quality, giving off a duller reflection or lower ‘albedo’ – a measure of the amount of radiation that is reflected back toward space from the Earth’s surface. Fresh, dry snow tends to have a small grain size that is under 0.5 mm in diameter. As it melts, the grain size grows and the larger grains reflect less sunlight, so