This effect is really huge. If I’ve got just 2-4 inches and don’t have time to shovel, I’ll shovel a strip down my driveway and the sun will melt a lot of that even if ambient temps are surprisingly far below freezing.
That albedo effect is a big part of the reason why it’s so important to try to save as much snow/glacier/icecap now as possible at the poles. It’s a cascading effect where a little bit of melting early on ends up making a huge difference in how much melting happens overall.
I can’t imagine it costing less money overall to run it longer versus only once snow has piled up.
There is the added warming you get from the sun, when the snow doesn’t build up. You loose that if you wait for the storm to be over.
This effect is really huge. If I’ve got just 2-4 inches and don’t have time to shovel, I’ll shovel a strip down my driveway and the sun will melt a lot of that even if ambient temps are surprisingly far below freezing.
That albedo effect is a big part of the reason why it’s so important to try to save as much snow/glacier/icecap now as possible at the poles. It’s a cascading effect where a little bit of melting early on ends up making a huge difference in how much melting happens overall.
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