obtrae 66 points67 points 6 months ago

I've never seen/felt snow. How heavy would that be?

Metalbass5 139 points140 points 6 months ago

Light stuff with a lot of air mixed in generally occurs when it's very cold and the ambient humidity is quite low. Often referred to as "powder", especially on ski hills. Skiers/snowboarders/snowmobilers tend to enjoy it. It can be as fine and light as pastry flour or powdered sugar.

The heavy stuff occurs at higher temperatures with higher humidity levels (generally, not always), and can be so heavy that roofs collapse, bus shelters shatter, and trees snap under the weight. It also packs together extremely quickly, and the moisture can turn it into essentially a solid block of ice after a rapid melt/thaw cycle.

The wet stuff makes better snowballs etc. up to a certain point, and you can straight up knock someone out with the right kind. The powdery, crystalline stuff makes for better winter sports, and if it's very cold it does not stick together whatsoever. Quite "fluffy".

Source: Am Canadian. Have 2 seasons: "Snow" and "Snow is coming soon".

Water-and-Watches 32 points33 points 6 months ago

Where in Canada? Cause here in Alberta, we get a third one: “BC wild fire smoke”

brokenboomerang 27 points28 points 6 months ago

Vancouver here. We just call that last one "summer."

Metalbass5 1 point2 points 6 months ago

I'm in Alberta too, haha. Calgary. Last few summers have been brutally hazy. Makes for some cool sunsets though. Too bad you can't watch them outside because of the air quality warnings...Lol.

SixSpeedDriver 41 points42 points 6 months ago

Living through the Seattle snow storm now - it's crazy, but we've largely got powder snow this time! Can't make a snowball or snowman worth a damn. Normally when we do get snow (very rare, maybe twice a year for an inch or two) it's very wet snow.

Go Hawks.

MarcusForever 21 points22 points 6 months ago

This is the absolute weirdest winter of my life. And it's glorious. We had over 7" already, and then 3-4" more fell this evening. People have literally been skiing around Phinney Ridge.

tortoise888 4 points5 points 6 months ago

There could be up to 8" more coming tomorrow. Never seen this much snow in Seattle.

Durzo_Blint 4 points5 points 6 months ago

Meanwhile in New England we're having a record year in lack of snow.

HelpMyGFIsInACult 2 points3 points 6 months ago

Up in Skagit country we got super fluffy snow the first time, but everything else has been the classic wet and heavy stuff. Super weird winter.

tw0Toedsloth 2 points3 points 6 months ago

First thing I noticed. Go Hawks!

SuperMadBro 1 point2 points 6 months ago

Were you here for the ice storm 8 years ago or so? Maybe 7

Metalbass5 0 points1 point 6 months ago

You likely get some pretty humid winters there, eh? Girlfriend and I have hit Vancouver and Seattle respectively for our last two vacations, and god damn do I have a hard time adjusting to that in the summer. I imagine your winters are a lot like the winters in Manitoba with the high humidity, but with less snow.

I will say that Miami/Ft. Lauderdale were absolutely hellish by comparison, though. Stepping out of the Ft. Lauderdale airport the humidity is like a solid wall. I was not prepared for that, haha.

[deleted] 1 point2 points 6 months ago


Metalbass5 0 points1 point 6 months ago

Eh, I suppose it mostly depends on the humidity level. When you get into extreme cold here in Alberta you get that really crystalline, crunchy stuff that is great for skiing, but useless otherwise. Makes shoveling easier though. I went out to see my parents in Manitoba over xmas and hooooly fuck did that humidity suck. At night it was just bitter cold, and in the morning as soon as everything started to warm up the snow was heavy AF and clung to everything. Old man and I went out to find a place to shoot and damn near got the truck stuck.

You know what now that you mention it I'm gonna look up what causes each type of snow, I'm curious to see why it changes. Surprising that I've never bothered to really learn the science behind it (or I did learn it in school, but I promptly burned those brain cells out doing god knows what).

Edit: You're gonna have to give me Celsius, otherwise I have to convert it, haha.

Wikkyd 0 points1 point 6 months ago

As a Canadian, I'm sorry, but you forgot road construction as our other season

Metalbass5 0 points1 point 6 months ago

A someone who takes transit I consider road construction more of a civic holiday. No way in hell I'm getting to work on time.

Brenolds 0 points1 point 6 months ago

Can you uh, send me some snow?

Metalbass5 0 points1 point 6 months ago

Now you have me legitimately wondering how to go about that. There's got to be a way.

vahntitrio 0 points1 point 6 months ago

You are wrong about snow types. Water content determines it, and temperature is always what determines the water content. Snow near 0 C will always be wet and heavy, whereas snow at -10 C and colder will always be light and fluffy.

Humidity is negligible to weather (other than fog) at temperatures below +10 C.

Metalbass5 0 points1 point 6 months ago

Oh! I didn't notice the typo! The second paragraph should read "higher" not lower. My bad. I'll fix that. Thanks for pointing that out.

However humidity definitely does have an effect on both falling and already fallen snow.

vahntitrio 0 points1 point 6 months ago

You have to create artificial conditions to have low humidity at below freezing temperatures.

Even in "it's a dry cold" Minnesota the humidity has been below 50% for less than 24 total hours since November 1st, with an average humidity around 80%.

Rungi500 18 points19 points 6 months ago

Depends on moisture content of said snow. Light snow is like dry coconut flakes. Heavy snow is pretty close to wet sand. The heavy stuff can hurt a bit.

Gloryblackjack 2 points3 points 6 months ago

we just got some sleet down here in middle texas this whole climate change thing really isn't a joke

Durzo_Blint 1 point2 points 6 months ago

New England has had next to no snow this whole winter. Boston is probably going to set a record for lack of snow. Last week it was 60 out.

BWSnap 0 points1 point 6 months ago

Don't say or type that out loud or we'll end up with three blizzards by mid-March.

Eurynom0s 0 points1 point 6 months ago

I went to college in the Hudson Valley ten years ago...even then snowy winters were solidly a crapshoot, whereas ten years prior to my time in college it was still basically a given that snow was gonna fall at the start of winter and then not melt until spring.

MediocreKim 9 points10 points 6 months ago

It’s mostly air. Heavy enough that you’d “oof” if it fell on you, but light enough that you wouldn’t be injured. Like sand.

dtfkeith 4 points5 points 6 months ago

If this amount of sand fell on you.. ouch. Not getting right back up

munchlax1 0 points1 point 6 months ago

Sand is incredibly dense and will kill you. People die from digging big holes at beaches quite often without realizing what's going to happen if it collapses

MediocreKim 0 points1 point 6 months ago

People die from snow, too. But not that small amount.

green_meklar 4 points5 points 6 months ago

Lighter than the equivalent volume of ice cream, but not by much.

ladykatey 1 point2 points 6 months ago

Surprisingly light, but not the lightest kind of snow there is (powder, which happens when it's very cold)- to stick together well enough to "carve" into a cake shape it would need to be a bit more dense.

skikamaru 1 point2 points 6 months ago

Fairly sure you're asking how heavy the snow cake would be lol. One person couldn't pick that up, it would weight quite a bit especially if compacted well.

butter12420 1 point2 points 6 months ago

Born and raised where it snows minimum 4 ft at any given time every year during winter, and also where every house in the town has a door that leads to nowhere on the second/third story in case your door gets blockaded by snow....theres many different kinds of snow. The more you pack it, obviously the denser and heavier it gets. It's like a light blanket, layer after layer...that continues to grow denser the more snow that falls/that you pack. That's why snowballs that are tightly packed are dangerous, it's like chucking a ball of solid ice. Snow is light but can also be extremely dense and heavy.

In this photo, he would have had to pack that snow pretty tightly to get those sharp edges. It's heavy.