How come moutain tops are always covered in snow when its closer to the sun?

Question

aways been curious.

Answer 1

Not all moutaintops are covered in snow. And it's not always colder on top of the mountain than in the valley. Check out this little blurb on how it can actually be colder at lower altitudes.

http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/...

But, in general, the air is thinner (lower air pressure) at higher altitudes. Less air pressure means colder temperatures. Also the thinner absorbs less sunlight which means it doesn't heat up as much from the sunlight as denser air does. So, even though there's more sunlight, the sunlight doesn't heat the air as much.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_it_cold...

Answer 2

there is low gravity up there like how in outer space its supposidly cold

the low gravity causes snow to fall  

Answer 3

Sorry, but the ignorance of the above posts are troubling if not scary.

It is simple.  Mountain tops are at a higher elevation.

Temperatures in our atmosphere decrease with altitude, thus the higher the mountain, the colder the temperature.

Temperature is key.  Above freezing snow melts, below freezing snow doesn't melt.

Go to Tucson, take a tempurature reading downtown, then drive to the top of Mount Lemon.  You will typically see a 20 degree difference in temperature.

Answer 4

Because as you get higher in the atmosphere, there is less oxygen. So the ice on the mountain is made of water and waters molecular structure is H20. ice on mountain-ice-water-H20. So with less oxygen up in the atmosphere, the ice there is much colder and stays longer.  

Answer 5

The higher you go, the more colder it is. Space is freezing. And air is thinner.Just because you see the sun, dosn't mean it's legitimately in that spot. It's milllions and millions of miles away.

Answer 6

The air is thinner at the top so it doesn't hold the heat as well as the denser air at the bottom.

Answer 7

It's because of the atmosphere. After a certain point, it gets very cold, and the air becomes very thin.