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Is it correct to say "it is pouring down snow". Usually one says pouring down rain,conjuring an image of rain being poured out of buckets. However, this doesn't seem right to use the idiom when speaking of snow.

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"It is snowing heavily"
"The snowfall is heavy today"
As you have very well pointed out, 'snowing' doesn't have many idioms attached to it, when compared to 'raining'.

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  • +1 for "'snowing' doesn't have many idioms attached to it, when compared to 'raining'." I would love to hear from people who live in snow-bound parts of the Anglophone community.
    – Euan M
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 19:20
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"there is thick snow falling"
"it's chucking down snow" (less often)
"there is heavy snow falling"

You are right, 'pouring' is only for fluids, most often liquids. Although it is also possible to pour some gasses, and granulated solids e.g. "to pour sugar" or "to pour sand"

Snow is solid water, so does not pour down. Plus its feathery texture means that it generally drifts down slowly, no matter how much snow is falling at once.

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  • There should be only one "is" in your first example.
    – V.V.
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 1:55
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    Where in the world is chucking down snow used?
    – user20792
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 2:44
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    I expect anywhere that "chuck" is in use as a synonym of throw
    – Euan M
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 2:51
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    I'm in the Northeastern US, where we get plenty of snow, and I have never heard anyone say chucking down snow, although we are familiar with the word "chuck" as a synonym for throw.. This might be a very local usage.
    – stangdon
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 15:40
  • Equally, NE US may be only one local usage. In the UK alone, there are more localities with dialectic and accentual differences than there are in the whole of the US combined.
    – Euan M
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 19:19
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Ski areas in the U.S. send out "dump alerts." Maybe "The sky is dumping snow" would work...

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  • Perhaps you could provide some references for this use case? I'm sure OP is looking for something that is commonly used, as opposed to an 'on-the-spot' creation.
    – Micah Windsor
    Commented May 19, 2020 at 0:51

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