Good Question: If the recent rain had been snow, how much snow would we have gotten?

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - We’ve had a lot of rain over the past few days, especially for January. That led to a question from a viewer.

For today’s Good Question, Mary Beth asks, “We’ve had quite a bit of rain in recent days. If that rain had been snow, how much snow would we have gotten?”

Meteorologist Jim Caldwell says a general rule of thumb is 10 inches of snow for every 1 inch of water. However, that can change with the temperature.

A heavy wet snow would have a ratio closer to 5 to 1 and some of the light powdery stuff comes in at 20 to 1.

These numbers aren’t set in stone, but there is a snow-to-water conversion chart that estimates the amount of meltwater based on how much snow has fallen and the temperature.

If you just want a rough estimate, it’s around 10 to 1.

If you have a Good Question you’d like us to try to answer, send it to goodquestion@wkyt.com.

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