Don't fixate on snow-depth measurements - they don't measure anything really useful
Posted by David Brooks | Sunday, February 24, 2013
Today is a perfect example of why you shouldn't fixate on snow-depth measurements. I had four inches of new show when I measured at 8 a.m. It was still snowing hard, and continued snowing for several hours. At 1 p.m. I had ... four inches.
The temperature had changed enough that the fluffy morning snow on the ground had settled, getting smaller. So although more stuff had fallen from the sky, the depth hadn't changed.
The melted-water-equivalent had changed, of course - that is, the amount of moisure in a given volume of snow had increased - but you can't tell that from mere depth measurements.
This is why I shrug off the "my town got X inches of snow and your town only got X-1 inches!" discussions after snowstorms.
