Everyone is talking about how light the snowfall was over Metro & Eastern Newfoundland last night, it was classic 'Superman snow', you really do feel like Superman shoveling it! 

You've likely heard me use the term 'Snow Ratio' or 'Fluff Factor' when talking about an incoming system. Snow ratio is the snow to liquid ratio with a snowfall & it's different with every system. It makes the difference between light & fluffy snow & the heavy wet cement we can often see, especially here in Newfoundland & even more so in St. John's. 

So why was this snow event so fluffy?
For the most part, it comes down to the temperature at the surface and also aloft.
Winds can also be factor. Stronger winds can help to compact the snow, but lighter winds have less impact. 

The general rule of thumb is... the closer to 0 the temperature is, the more liquid water in the clouds & the more liquid content in the snow that falls to the surface. The high liquid content makes the snow stick closer together in your driveway and makes it heavier to shovel. On the other hand, the colder the temperatures are, the lighter & fluffier the snow is. At colder temperatures the snow has little to know liquid water content, which makes it lighter. Lighter snow has far more air pockets between all of those snow crystals, allowing it to accumulate & build up much faster.

Again the temperatures ranges are general and values are only approximate. Every situation is different.  

Again every Snow event is different, but with a typical snow event with temperatures near or few degrees below 0, the "Average" snow ratio is near 10:1. That means when you take 10 cm of Snow it would melt down to 1 cm of liquid water equivalent. 
All of the forecast model snowfall projections I show you on Here & Now & on the blog are projecting at a 10:1 ratio. 

WET SNOW
These types of snow events are little more prominent here along the Coast. With some storms, we can see wet snow falling through temperatures right at 0 or even slightly above freezing, perhaps even mixing with rain. In those cases we see a water logged snowfall which could be in the 5:1 ratio range. 5 cm of Snow melted down would equal 1 cm of liquid. We've all been soaked to the bone in those heavy wet snow events.