Many of you have probably heard that an inch of rain yields a foot of snow

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Many of you have probably heard that an inch of rain yields a foot of snow. Referring to the "Snow-to-liquid ratio." When weather models predict the total amount of precipitation, it is always done in "inches of liquid equivalent." In other words, the models predict the total amount of water in liquid form that precipitates from the atmosphere during a given time period. Meteorologists can convert these values into snowfall totals by applying the snow-to-liquid ratio. The most common ratio is 10:1, but factors including the temperature inside of the cloud, how quickly the air is ascending, and the surface temperature (to an extent) can influence the snow-to-liquid ratio.

 

Imagine that a winter storm was heading for Champaign, IL, and the forecast models predict that we would get 1.40 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation. Use the liquid to snow ratios given below to calculate the total forecast snow (or snow and sleet combined) amounts in inches.

 

Scenario #1: Ratio is 8:1. __________________________________

 

Scenario #2: Ratio is 16:1. _________________________________

 

Scenario #3: Half the precipitation falls as sleet (3:1) and half falls as snow (9:1). _______________________