One raindrop can equal ten inches of snow

Seriously! Here's how a tiny bit of rain packs such a big snowy punch

By Smartasaurus· 1 min read Curious

Think about a massive, ten-inch snowdrift piled up against your door

Scale check

Gut call — how extreme does this actually get?

Reality tends to overshoot. Pick your ceiling.

The short version

Seriously! Here's how a tiny bit of rain packs such a big snowy punch
Conversely, "heavy" snow—the kind that is perfect for snowballs—happens when the temperature is closer to freezing.
Oddly, the loudest part of a snowstorm is the silence.

Snow is mostly air, which is why a massive blizzard might only leave behind a tiny puddle once it melts. For a standard winter storm, the ratio is 10:1, meaning you would need to melt a ten-inch snowdrift just to fill an inch-deep cake pan with water.

This ratio isn't a rule; it’s a sliding scale. If the air is exceptionally cold and dry, the snow becomes fluffy and "wild," sometimes reaching a ratio of 30:1. In these conditions, thirty inches of snow would melt down into the same amount of water as a single short afternoon rain shower.

Conversely, "heavy" snow—the kind that is perfect for snowballs—happens when the temperature is closer to freezing. This snow is wet and dense, often pushing the ratio down to 5:1. This is why five inches of wet snow can collapse a roof while twenty inches of dry powder barely puts any stress on the shingles.

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