Question about snow

[Alpo]

Frequently in my posts I have made reference to "that cold wet white stuff" up there the frozen northland.

 

But is it really wet?

 

I know it is precipitation, but the volume is 1/10 of rain. One inch of rain is equivalent to 10 inches of snow. So I suddenly wonder if it might also be 1/10 as wet as rain.

 

Snow angels. You lie down on your back in the snow and move your arms up and down and your legs out and back, and you end up with something that looks like somebody that has wings and is wearing a skirt.

 

But if snow is really wet, it seems like making snow angels would get you sopping, and if it's cold as it needs to be to get snow, you would turn into an angelsickle.

 

And then I read one time years back that if you stepped in a puddle, so your foot and shoe and pant leg was wet, you could dry it off by packing snow around it. The snow would absorb the moisture from your clothing, which would prevent your leg from freezing solid.

 

Thus my question - is snow really wet?

[Steel-eye Steve SASS #40674]

Really depends on the air temperature. If it’s right around freezing, yes the snow will be “wet.” If it’s in the mid 20s or colder it will be dry and powdery.

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

 

Now, I don't have much experience with snow, never lived where it snows regularly and I don't ski, and I can't see driving 4 hours to fight traffic, maybe have to chain up, play in snow for a couple of hours to get cold and wet, then drive 4 hours home, but I do know that "wet" snow isn't (usually) dripping wet, just heavy and kind of sticky.  It will get you wet faster than dry powder.

 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

At the time of year, when there is a danger of stepping in freezing puddles, snow etc, we wear appropriate foot wear, in keeping with the situation. 

As for drying your foot, shoe and pant legs by packing snow around it; that is pretty much a last resort if you are in the bush with no way to dry off and warm your foot. Our Inuit people taught us to do that if there is no other choice.

Packing snow around your footwear and pant legs in the towns and cities would not be advisable, considering the stuff to be found in city sidewalk and road snow.

Puddles in an urban environment, will likely contain salt and calcium, used on sidewalks and roads to help melt ice and snow for driving safety.  That will leave a white "Tide Line" on the pant leg in question.

[JD Lud]

If you can’t tell from looking out your window…you will tell if it’s wet when you go to shovel.  A nice cold snow = very light or powder and easy to shovel snow. Wet snow = super heavy and becomes much more work to lift/push out of the way.  
 

Light/cold snow is prone to blizzard conditions and blowing across roads there it becomes packed by wheels and turns to ice patches.

 

Wet snow blows less and typically stays put.

 

Powder makes a horrible snow ball…wet snow was what you wanted as a kid for a good snowman or snowball fight.

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Dry powdery snow can be deep with snow drifts, deep and shallow areas. Wet snow can be dense and heavy.
 

 

[PowderRiverCowboy]

Come on up to Bighorns and see for yourself it snowed last night

[Pat Riot]

In more normally humid areas you get heavy wet snow. It packs well. Heavy wet snow doesn’t really get powdery and holds moisture density down to 17 degrees F. Below 17 it isn’t really wet but it stays packed and dense. 

Ironically salt will not melt snow at 17°F and below. Diesel fuel also starts gelling at 17°.

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Since I left Utah I have tried very hard not to think of snow.  It usually works until someone asks about it.

 

[Rip Snorter]

Is this what they mean by a Snow Job?

[Cypress Sun]

 

Me, Mr. Florida boy,  flew to Buffalo NY in January 1978 with a friend to pick up his van and bring it back down to Florida. Figured I'd get to see snow, make a snowman, throw a few snowballs, make a snow angel and spend a few days looking at the sights.

 

NOOOO...5 degrees actual temp and -30 wind chill. Snow was what they call powder snow. Nice, fluffy and picturesque but not wet and there was not sights to see except for snow and lots of it both in the sky and on the ground.

[Alpo]

My daughter's family moved from Puerto Rico to Atlanta in January of 08.

 

One girl just shy of five and the other one just past one.

 

Snow for the first time.

 

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

50 years ago, when I was about to get ot of the Army, I took a welding class. One ole boy was a cowboy around Laredo, TX. We both joked we lived on the same road, Rt. 1. This smart aleck from Florida said he was 15 before he saw snow. Cowboy pipes up dead serious, I was in the 3rd grade before I saw rain. Shut smart aleck right up.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

If you XC ski  in the backcountry, you'll know the difference. There are many kinds/phases of snow.

 

We get a lot of wet snow in the Cascades; famous to skiers as "Cascade concrete". If that's what I found on an outing on Nordic skis, I'd usually pack up and go home.

 

Dry, cold powder snow? Fly on skis for hours....

[Chili Ron]

Howdy,

Seems like I heard the eskimo folks have maybe 20 or30 words for the different types of snow.

I would kinda like to hear the translations of such.

Hear not ezperience pleeze.

Best

CR

 

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

just don't eat the yellow or brown stuff 

 

  CB 

[Dusty Driver]

Lived with snow every winter all my life. Nothing unusual to get over a metre (39 inches) of snow piled up in yard. But they say it's a dry cold. Regardless, that's why I now winter in Texas.