UPPER PENINSULA -- Sure, we see snow more often than not up here. But all snowfalls aren't the same.
Snowflakes can sometimes be fat and wet. This kind of heavier snow can make for dangerous driveway shoveling. Many people have hurt their backs trying to shovel too much of it at once. At least it makes a good snowball, though, because this type of snow sticks together.
Other times, the flakes are fairly featherweight and small. This fluffier snow takes much less effort to get rid of.
So, why the big difference? What gives?
"It has to do with temperature and moisture content both," said Karl Bohnak, WLUC Chief Meteorologist. "We tend to get our wet snows early and also late in the season because the temperatures are warmer. Often, you'll have a greater source of moisture too because the air is warmer. When the air gets drier, we tend to get the fluffier snow."
Wet snow will melt when it lands if the ground temperature is above freezing. Dry snowflakes usually pile up much higher and can be hazardous by blowing and drifting across roadways even after snow has stopped falling.
Meteorologists use snow ratios to talk about snow's moisture content.
If you take 10 inches of snow and melted it all down to 1 inch of water, it would have a snow to water ratio of ten to one, which is pretty typical. It can take as much as 40 inches of dry snow to make 1 inch of water. But the ratio is only 5 to 1 for super heavy wet snow, which, by the way, makes for great holiday creations.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWLUC