Measuring snow/rain

[SlimJim Z71]

Does anyone know how much and inch of rain equals in snow? I'm trying to get a rough idea how much snow we may get according to the link that iowastorm posted. By the way... thanks again iowa!

-Tim

 

[allabout]

1" of rain= 12" of snow

 

[matthew Urban]

I'm not sure, but I think it may be around 9 or 10"
goodluck,
matt

 

[SlimJim Z71]

Wow... that's good news. IF that map was right... I'm looking at anywhere between 8-10" of snow! Yeee Haaawwww!

-Tim

 

[Alan]

It may average out to 1-12 or 1-10, but it varies so much depending on conditions that without actually collecting and melting down a measureed sample there is no real good way to tell.

 

[allabout]

It' 10" with blowing & drifting 12" sorry for misleading 10" or 12' is big snow for are state slimjim .

 

[allabout]

with melt down let's hope it only 5" I must go watch the weather p.s. the book you sent me Chuck is great.

 

[SlimJim Z71]

Yeah allabout... that would be a good storm for us. It'd keep me busy for about 12 hours. Let's just start praying now! By the way, I've heard of the indian rain dance... is there one for snow???

-Tim

 

[iowastorm]

Actual ratios of rain vs. snow depend upon several variables: how much moisture is available in the lower atmosphere and what the temperatures are at and above the surface. Twice per day, forecasters release weather ballons to collect data to determine things like moisture content and wind speeds with height in the lower part of the atmosphere. This data is put into what are called 'soundings'. These are very complicated, but essential to forecasting (especially for severe weather). Anyway, although this was slightly off the subject, it all means that 1" of rain does not always equal 10 or 12" of snow.

 

[BRL]

Here's a link I found about how to officially measure snowfall if anyone's interested.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/snwguid.htm

 

[iowastorm]

BRL: Thanks for the link. Haven't seen that one before.

 

[iowastorm]

Hey BRL: found another link that you might be interested in - it's a book on snowfall:

http://ulysses.atmos.colostate.edu/~odie/snowtxt.html

 

[BRL]

Thanks Iowa. I actually had that one too because the last link I put up actually came from this page, & all of these links may be interesting to some of us here. I never did order the book, but now that you reminded me it does look like an interesting read.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/snowpln.htm