[McKay (OP)]

Greetings. I have noticed that pretty much any object on the surface of the snow or partly sticking out, will have a indentation around it where the snow has, presumably, melted. I find it fascinating and I think it is to to the fact that those materials absorb the Suns radiation more and get warmer than the snow. Is that right?
Snow melts at 0C (273.15 K?), so the objects temperature should be at least that high to actually melt the snow, not just warm it up a bit making it -9C from -10C?
How high can the temperature get just by leaving the most absorbing material lying in the snow (or somewhere on Earth)?