06/15/2025
Rain rain, go away!!!
NOW... WHAT IF IT ALL WAS SNOW??? ❄️❄️❄️
With all of the rain since the beginning of May, I've been seeing comments from time to time referencing the amount of snow we could have seen *if* all of the rain that has fallen would have fallen as snow! Well, this is what it would sort-of look like. In general, for every 1 inch of rain, 10 inches of snow accumulates. It also varies on the air temperature. Colder, drier snow would have a higher ratio (more like 1 inch = 15-20 inches), and a wetter snow would have a lower ratio (more like 1 inch = 4 - 8 inches). I used the precipitation data from the Midwest Regional Climate Center and just applied the 10:1 ratio!
Would this actually happen in the winter? No. The atmosphere is able to hold more moisture in the warmer seasons than in the colder seasons. This is a basic thermodynamics principle called the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship, in which for every 1 degree Celsius, the atmosphere can hold around 7% more water v***r. Therefore, if this pattern *did* occur in the middle of winter, you would probably see 1/3rd to even 1/4th of these actual 10:1 amounts, which is still a lot of snow for 1.5 months! That would also vary on the snow-to-rain ratio, depending on how cold it would've been for each snowfall event. It is no doubt this pattern in a cold January would have produced at least a few 12-24" snowstorms.
Now, back to reality, we shouldn't see anymore snowfall maps for at least 4-5 months, but you will see more rain and thunderstorms as our active pattern continues into the middle of June. Stay tuned!
