If you built a snowman during the day the snow only needs to be below freezing. It can get colder that night or the next day by quite a bit. The exterior of the snowman would be colder than the inside even though they’re both frozen.

  • UltraHamster64@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    Snow is porous (unlile water it came from, or ice) so it is a pretty good insulator. So yeah it would be warmer inside the snow man.

    You can even build a really big one, sit inside it and light a campfire to stay warm :)

    • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
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      18 hours ago

      Ice also has a fairly high specific heat capacity, which means that changing the temperature means there’s lots of energy involved. Energy can’t just leave the ice at whatever rate you want, which means there’s a potential bottleneck.

      As the environment cools down during a clear skies, there a lot of energy trapped inside the snow, and it’s leaving at some slow pace. Even when there’s less heat in the snow, that change translates to a very small difference in temperature. The air around it can also cool down much faster, which means that the temperature difference can be surprisingly big.

  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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    19 hours ago

    This is kinda how igloos work. They hold the heat from the ground below and the occupants inside. The interior is cold, but not nearly as cold as the sub-zero temperatures outside.