Europe?
S"A: Written in 1563 in Eretz Yisrael and published in Italy (Europe). Perhaps neither place has/had much snow in the livable Jewish villages, imo..
Submerged in water, one may have a variance in identifying properties after several days, as mentioned in the S"A.
however the NY temperatures in a car location would keep the indentifiable features intact for much longer for the purposes of ruling out an 'agunah' situation (after missing for 10 days) as listed in this thread.