They explain that in the article. Light barely gets absorbed in water, which is why you can see several meters deep in water. Only the absorbed part can turn into heat.
They measured an effect that partly evaporates water more efficiently than the heat influx can. The theory mentioned in the article is, that light directly knocks out water molecules at the water/air surface boundary. The measured effect was the most effective with light of a green wavelength
It’s beautiful, but there was a good chance to get stuck everywhere in cars without all-wheel drive. In my neighborhood the snow services dont run through to remove the snow from road and parkings, so you have to do it by hand. Took 3 hours to free our house with 2 people and there was not much place left to shovel the snow too. Over night the temperatures dropped to ~ -12°C so everything is frozen now too. Can’t imagine what 70 cm in a day would be like. This was probably the highest single day snowfall i experienced, the only comparable time was i think in 2005
But yeah has been a while since i last saw a white christmas. Nowadays the most snowfall seems to happen in february/march