Little Water Content In The Snow

When it snows, you may have noticed you don't need much effort to move it.  The snow we've seen in Sioux Falls had had minimal water content.  Keep in mind, typically 10 inches of snow usually melts down to an inch of water, known as a ten-to-one ratio.

Here's a list of the recent snows that added up to over an inch and their water equivalent.  The snow-to-water ratio ranges any from 15 to one to 21 to one.  Of the 14.6 inches of snow during that time, we've only accumulated seventy-nine hundredths of water.  Compare that to our three snows of an inch or more last year, which tallied 11.2 inches of snow and just under an inch of water for a 12 to one ratio.

Two things might be contributing to the poor water content.  It could be the drought, with very little moisture in the ground. Winter is also one of the driest times of the year. The climatic average only gives Sioux Falls under two inches of liquid for the winter months.