So, two 10.5-inch (27-centimeter) snowfalls may accumulate to a depth of only 17 inches (43 cm). But if you suspend reality for a moment, the depth will still never exceed the sum of all snowfalls because snow is compressible. That assumption would almost always be wrong, of course. Snow depth is like the sum of individual snowfalls, if one assumes no sublimation – snow turning into water vapor – or melting from the first snowfall until now. Also, hydrologists’ models that are used to predict water levels critically depend upon good initial data collection, though improved satellite data has helped reduce their reliance on any individual measurement. As hard as it is to believe at times, the snow will eventually melt, and rapid melting could cause problems with flooding. I like 10 because it makes the math easy.Ĭareful measurement is vital in order to make reasonable estimates for the amount of liquid contained in the snowpack. To get a representative number, you need a site with minimal drifting (not always easy to find), and several measurements should be averaged to get a final number. It’s usually rounded to the nearest whole number. Snow depth should be a measure of the average depth in a given location and its immediate surroundings. Marisa Ferger, CC BY-NC-ND How is snow depth measured? Note the instrument shelters in the background. The author measuring the paltry snow accumulation at his observation location in Pennsylvania. Snow measurement is inherently inexact, but attending to one’s surroundings and sticking to the guidelines help those of us who do it on a regular basis stay consistent – and with long-term weather records, consistency is arguably just as important as accuracy. There are over 8,700 cooperative observers across the country who send in their weather data to the NWS daily, some who have done it for over 75 years! National Weather Service has relied on a network of volunteer observers, all strictly adhering to the NWS guidelines, to come up with snow measurement numbers over a region. It’s a little more complicated than you might think to get those oh-so-important snow totals for winter storms. Impressive numbers, for sure, but assuming you have a measuring stick long enough to reach the ground beneath all the white, how hard can it be to measure? You stick a ruler or yardstick into the snow and get a number, right? Well, not so fast. Mountainous locations will sometimes see triple-digit snow depths. The same month, Bangor, Maine, tied its record for deepest snow at 53 inches. But you can do your part by not buying into what they are showing and also not spreading them like a nasty virus.The Blue Hill Observatory, a few miles south of Boston, recorded the deepest snow cover in its 130-year history, an incredible 46 inches, in February 2015. There's nothing that can be done about these maps they will never disappear from social media. Sometimes you might see these maps with pretty blue, pink and purple contours up to a week or so in advance of a storm's arrival. This thirst to know what will happen can often be fed by those computer model forecasts of snow amounts that often go viral on social media. Patience is needed when it comes to snowfall forecasts: The eagerness to know how much impact a snow or ice storm will have is understandable, but unfortunately, sometimes that question cannot be answered until within one to three days of its arrival. In order to understand how big of a disruption one might be, the most pressing question is always: How much snow am I going to see? Major winter storms affect the United States every year and bring with them major disruptions to everyday life. Sign up for the Morning Brief email newsletter to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.
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