Snow is in the forecast and many kids are wishing for enough snow to make a snowman!
Some snow events are better for making snowmen and snowballs. The reason? The amount of moisture in the snow itself.
The other day, Meteorologist Steve Fundaro wrote up a blog about snow ratios. Snow ratios are determined by the temperature at the time snow is falling. A higher ratio usually is a result of colder temperatures. This results in drier snow. Dry snow isn’t as good for snowmen or snowballs as it is hard to compact and blows around.
Wetter snow is better, as it compacts a little more. You can think of this the same way as if you were mixing up cake ingredients. Before you add water, the ingredients are hard to mix together. Once you add that way, it becomes more like dough-and is easier to mold and shape. Same concept with the snow! If it’s too dry and fluffy, it’ll just fall apart and blow around!
With this event, it looks like our snow ratio will be around a 10:1 ratio for most of the event. This will result in decent snow for snowmen, especially after a bit of sun comes out Saturday afternoon to help melt things a bit in the top layer of the snow.
Later in the weekend, after some snow melts Saturday and then re-freezes Saturday night into Sunday, the snow may become more icy with a layer of ice crystals on top.