Mangrove wrote:Juha Tompuri wrote:As mentioned earlier the terrain for tanks for flanking manoeuvres was far from ideal, but as mentioned above, for a foot soldier, snow was not a problem during early (-mid?) December 1939.
Usually the snowfall is greater in locations near a major body of water, such as the Arctic Ocean. Yläluostari is situated some 30 kilometres inland.
According to a diary marking on 8 November 1939, there were already around 10 cm of snow near the coast.
How near the coast?
...and according to the same source after two days, because of rain and temperatures over +0°C, nearly all of the the snow had melted away. After that, before Winter War, there had been thin layers of snow and rain coming and going. The weather at the outbreak of Winter War there was icy ground, with a little snow.
I find the Murmansk weather not that relevant, but:
According to the information gathered by a Soviet weather station at Murmansk (N68°58, E33°03), the total amount of precipitation between 31 October and 31 November 1939 was 20.3 mm. The temperature during the same time period fluctuated between 5 and -4°C. The temperature does not take account the wind chill and the urban heat island, which means the temperature was probably below zero most of the time just outside Murmansk in October and November.
AFAIK wind does not turn rain into snow.
Based on the temperature and the amount of precipitation, there was roughly 20 - 30 cm of snow around Murmansk in 31 November 1939. Again, there was probably more snow in windswept areas.
As above.
Most reasonably there was also rainfall that melted snow.
Regards, Juha