<p>I am a novice and thus would like you not to mind too much if the answer to my question seems "obvious" to you.</p>

<p>I heard that in the cold desert of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladakh" rel="noreferrer">Ladakh</a>, if you keep your face in sunlight and legs in shade then you can get a frost bite on your legs and a sunstroke on your face. If the sunlight is so much intense at the place (due to excessively thin layer since Ladakh's elevation ranges from 3000 m to 8000 m), then why doesn't snow melt rapidly during the sunshine.</p>

<p>One reason that I could think of is the very high albedo of the snow, but is there something else that's preventing the snow from melting very fast out there?</p>

<climatology><snow>
Why is not snow melting in Ladakh at a rapid pace
Harsh Sharma
# Why is not snow melting in Ladakh at a rapid pace

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-01-04)

I am a novice and thus would like you not to mind too much if the answer to my question seems "obvious" to you.

I heard that in the cold desert of [Ladakh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladakh), if you keep your face in sunlight and legs in shade then you can get a frost bite on your legs and a sunstroke on your face. If the sunlight is so much intense at the place (due to excessively thin layer since Ladakh's elevation ranges from 3000 m to 8000 m), then why doesn't snow melt rapidly during the sunshine.

One reason that I could think of is the very high albedo of the snow, but is there something else that's preventing the snow from melting very fast out there?

**Tags:** climatology, snow


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