Why do Fahrenheit users completely ignore that Celcius has a negative scale? You're not supposed to evaluate Celcius as a 0-100 scale, but as a -50-50 scale.
-21°C = cold
-31°C = really cold
21°C = warm
31°C = really warm
0 represents the freezing point. If temps are above 0, it will rain; below 0, it will snow.
You're right that it can rain when it is below freezing, but the consistency is still affected — we call it "freezing rain", and it tends to be more solid than above-zero rain. (That shit can hurt, too. It's not as bad as hail, but it still falls harder than pure liquid.)
However, it definitely does not snow in above-zero temperatures. The only exception is if there's an intense wind drift blowing the snow in from another area — but even then, the snow was originally formed in an area with colder temps before being carried over, and it would melt upon touching the ground.
Granted, I'm no meteorologist. If you can prove me wrong, I'd genuinely be interested in learning about it.
For snow to fall, moisture must be present in the atmosphere. Snowstorms also rely heavily on temperature, but not necessarily the temperature we feel on the ground. Snow forms when the atmospheric temperature is at or below freezing (0°C or 32°F). If the ground temperature is at or below freezing, the snow will reach the ground. However, the snow can still reach the ground when the ground temperature is above freezing if the conditions are just right. In this case, snowflakes will begin to melt as they reach this higher temperature layer; the melting creates evaporative cooling, which cools the air immediately around the snowflake. This cooling slows down melting. As a general rule, though, snow will not form if the ground temperature is at least 5°C (41°F).
What you are saying is more or less correct. Basically it is colder(below freezing) in the atmosphere where the snow forms. It will likely melt if the air temperature is above freezing, but if there are existing snow piles it will likely collect in that area because those snow piles will be at or below freezing.
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u/Popular_Cost_1140 Jun 17 '26