Snow To Water Ratios printable pdf download

Snow To Water Ratios

Snow to Water Ratios

The amount of snow from a storm can look impressive when it covers your house

and cars, but if you melted the snow you would discover that very little water is actually

involved. The 'snow to ice ratio' or Snow Ratio expresses how much volume of snow

you get for a given volume of water. Typically a ratio of 10:1 (ten to one) means that

every 10 inches of snowfall equals one inch of liquid water.

Problem 1 - During a winter storm called 'Snowmageddon' in 2010, the Washington

DC region received about 24 inches of snow fall. If this was dry, uncompacted snow,

about how many inches of rain would this equal if the Snow Ratio was 10:1 ?

Problem 2 - The Snow Ratio depends on the temperature of the air as shown in the

table below:

Temp (F)

-10

Ratio

10:1

15:1

20:1

30:1

40:1

50:1

If 30 inches of snow fell in Calgary, Alberta at 18

F, and 25 inches of snow fell in

Denver, Colorado where the temperature was 25

F, at which location would the most

water have fallen?

Space Math

Snow To Water Ratios