Just Ask

I was asked this question on the heels of the snowfall earlier this month, and it seems timely since we can’t seem to shake the white stuff this winter:

Q: There is a formula for snowfall amounts and how it translates into rainfall. So, 12 inches of snow equals how much in rain?

A: I’d always heard about that formula, too. In looking for the answer, I came across a website from USA Today that archives questions and answers on snow-related matters.

This particular question is similar to one that was posed on that website in 2006 and answered by Doyle Rice, USA Today’s weather editor.

Rice explains a common ratio is 10 inches of melted snow equals 1 inch of rain. He adds, though, that the National Snow and Ice Data Center states that isn’t necessarily so, because the figure depends on the density of the snow. If it’s that dry, fluffy type of snow, it takes about 100 inches of snow to melt down to 1 inch of rain. If it’s a heavy, wet snow, it only takes about 3 inches of snow to melt to an inch of rain.

That Q&A section has many other interesting tidbits about snow.

For example, someone asked what the southernmost point was in the United States where snow has fallen. The answer provided by the site is — get ready for this — Hawaii.

That’s right. Hawaii. But it’s sort of a trick answer.

That’s because snow occasionally falls at the highest elevations of Hawaiian mountains, Haleakala, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The USA Today site states a document from the Honolulu National Weather Service Forecast Office declares a foot or more of snow has been known to remain at and near those mountain summits for as long as a few days. The lowest the snow has extended is about 7,000 feet from the top.

As for the continental United States, the southernmost point for snow was Homestead, Fla., near Miami, on Jan. 19, 1977. Homestead is 25 degrees, 28 minutes north of the equator.

USA Today has a 2002 article from Keith Heidorn on an online weather site called “The Weather Doctor.”

According to the story, the nearest weather-recording spot was at the Miami Airport, where snow didn’t fall, so there is no official reading of that snowfall, but there were reports of snow at locations throughout Dade County. Temperatures reached record lows into the 20s in some south Florida locations. Miami’s low was 32 degrees.

Another interesting item from the website: The present-day city of Beihai, China (21 degrees, 29 minutes north latitude), is the southernmost point above the equator where snow was reported at sea level. It occurred in 1654.

Bernie Delinski writes Just Ask, which runs Wednesdays in the TimesDaily. If you’ve got a question, e-mail it to bernie.delinski@timesdaily.com, call him at (256) 740-5739, fax it to (256) 740-4717 or send it to Just Ask, c/o TimesDaily, P.O. Box 797, Florence, AL 35631.