Snow Science Just how much water did we get from the Spring Blizzard of 2005? email to friend
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Snow to Liquid Equivalent Conversion:
People often think of snowfall in terms of how many inches of snow accumulated after a snowfall event. Anyone who lives in an area that often receives snow knows that different snowfall events can produce snow of different densities. We can get "wet," heavy snow or the very "dry," powdery variety. Meteorologists and hydrologists tend to express snowfall amounts in terms of "liquid water equivalent," which is simply the amount of liquid water that you would get if you were to melt the snow. Another way of thinking about it is that the liquid water equivalent is how much rain would fall if it were warm enough for the snow to fall as liquid, instead of frozen, precipitation. A commonly used rule of thumb is that every 10 inches of snow that falls is equivalent to 1 inch of liquid water. This "10-to-1 rule" doesn't always apply, however, as the actual liquid water equivalent of snowfall varies quite a bit, depending on meteorological conditions and geographic location.

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Days like this make you hungry...for snow ice cream! Learn how to make your own snow made ice cream.