How much snow does it take to equal an inch of rain?

Answer 1

The commonly accepted value is 10" of snow = 1" of rain. Not only is the water contained in each snowflake expanded due to its temperature, the shape of the snowflake prevents effective compaction; the crystalline structure traps a lot of air, even when packed into, say, a snowball.

US Geological Survey likes the 10:1 ratio, too.

http://wa.water.usgs.gov/outreach/rain.htm

Answer 2

Depends on what kind of snow it is. There's the dust like stuff that just blows around in the wind, that would take more than the heavier wet stuff that makes good snowballs to make one inch.

But really I have no idea. I suppose a way to do it would be to have a thing that measures how much rain you've had and fill it up,not PACK it full but just dump snow in there until it matches however many inches you have on the ground and then let it melt and see what that says.

Answer 3

about an inch and a half. When water freezes it expands. This shows that you would need more snow to eguall less rain. If you pack down an inch of snow it makes about a 3/4ths of an inch of ice.

Answer 4

1 foot. as a rule of thumb 1 inch of rain equals one foot of snow

Answer 5

i think 4 inches

Answer 6

the inch is per foot squared

Answer 7

2 cm...just guessin baby