Snow branch

Another day another branch. The weather has been superb so today called for a longer walk with once again snow covered branches on my mind. The photo shows another interesting aspect of snowy branches, notice how there is more snow on the tree end of the branch than the tip. My first thought was that it was to do with the angle of the branch, there is more snow where the angle to horizontal is least. The night it snowed there wasn't much wind so the snow fell vertically down, the lower angle part of the branch would have presented a larger area then the steep part. On observing more trees I could see that maybe there was another reason, the branch is thicker at the tree end so maybe that's why the snow is able to pile up higher.