Results....

Sligthly different filling method: Take a sheet of card and scoop up snow
and place it on top of other snow until the depth is about the same as the
deph of your glass/container, then cookie-cut the snow (i.e. push your
container into the snow), slide the card under the container and invert.
This was you should have a reasonably uncompress sample. Of course if your
snow is deep enough, just push the container into the snow only as far as
it's length.

Anyway, two samples: 16.9:1 and 15.4:1 . I'll send my MSc students out this
morning!

The raito will vary greatly - whether the snow has been wind-blown or
settled gently. Back in 1985 (17 March) we has a snowstorm in Grantham where
we had 15" in 2 hours (yeap). By the end of the next day this had compacted
(not melted) to ~8 inches...

Chris



"Brendan DJ Murphy" wrote in message
news
I've always wanted to know how much precipitation (in rain mm) is required
to produce 1 foot of snow.

I've heard statements such as "1 foot of snow is equivalent to 1 inch of
rain" (ie: 12:1 ratio)
Ive also heard "1mm of rain is equivalent to 1cm of snow" (ie: 10:1 ratio)
Which one is correct?

In order to get the answer I performed the following experiment...

I took a pint beer-glass (one with an official pint crown and is 1 pint to
the rim, not a lined glass)

I filled it as best as I could with snow, taking care not to get air-gaps
and also care not to compress the snow. The snow must be kept "fluffy" and
not compacted in.

I skimmed the top of the glass so that I have a pint of fluffy snow. I
brought the glass indoors and watched my pint of snow melt.

I was surprised how little water there was left in the glass!
I measured the water (in ml) and divided that number in to 568ml (one
pint)

Before posting my result, I'd be interested to see if somebody else could
perform the same experiment and we will then compare our answers.

Its just a bit of fun,

regards

Brendan