Weather Whys: How heavy is snow?

 

Thanks to an overall mild winter many of our snow events have been more of the heavy, wet, slushy snow rather than the fluffy snow we may be used to in southeast Wisconsin. Anywhere from a dusting to 6" of that slushy snow fell across southeast Wisconsin on Monday but how much does that snow actually weigh? We answer that in today's Weather Whys.

The weight of snow depends heavily on the water content of the snow. As we all know from shoveling a wet snow is much heavier than a fluffy snow. When you put it in terms of pounds a wet snow can weight over 12 pounds per square foot and a fluffy snow weighs about 4 pounds per square foot.

Most roofs can withstand about 20 pounds of snow per square foot which you would need about two feet of wet snow to cause. Raking roofs is common in Wisconsin after any snow but especially becomes important when our snow depth starts to get over a foot of wet snow.

Weather Whys is a segment by Meteorologist Justin Thompson-Gee that airs during the CBS 58 News on WMLW - The M from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. The segment answers viewer weather questions, explains weather phenomena and reveals interesting weather stats. To submit your question reach out to Justin on Facebook, Twitter or by emailing him at [email protected].