Cold snow in cold air will tend to bounce off a cold airframe: cold being well below freezing.
Between - 15 to 0C snow crystals soften up and get more sticky. In faster airframes there is some temperature rise, less so in a 172.
Then there's snow density, which is highly variable. Here in Canada I've encountered snow streets and picked out the thin spots. The thick stuff looked IFR to me and I stay away. This is a time when you want to be careful about terrain and towers below the cumulus.
If the clouds are scattered, flying over them can work.