Powder Snow

[Cheese Rice]

A lot of people on here appear to prefer powder snow, why is that? I find it useless as you cant do bugger all with it, all the fun of snow dissapears when you try to build a snow man and it blows away in your hand :blush:

[John Cox]

No Slush, very cold. lovely.

[Don]

No Slush, very cold. lovely.

I agree entirely. Much better than wet snow. May not be so good for snowballs, but it's far nicer to trudge through, looks nicer and lasts longer.

[Nick L]

Makes a nice crunching noise when you walk on it as well, with wet snow it's just squelchy.

[Thundery wintry showers]

One oft-quoted point about powder snow is that it occurs at temperatures below freezing, indicating an event that isn't marginal. There are different degrees of powder snow and wet snow- one person's "powder snow" might concievably be another person's "wet snow" in some borderline cases!

Personally I prefer the relatively compact snow that occurs at temperatures close to 0C, combining the advantages of nice crunching sound, lack of slush, and use for snowmen and snowballs etc. The wet stuff that occurs at 1C often ends up unpleasantly slushy and then freezes over to form ice (as happened with a couple of Exeter's snow events this winter), while the powdery stuff at temperatures well below freezing isn't of much use.

[Terminal Moraine]

Powder snow every time for me. It only occurs at temperatures below 0c and is therefore synonymous with real cold, it also drifts readily whereas damp or wet snow doesn't.

I have no interest whatsoever in making snowballs or snowmen so it's no contest as far as I'm concernced.

[Polar Continental]

I am not easily satisfied, I agree with TM, only temperatures below zero giving powder snow and preferably coupled with heavy drifting will do for me.

Paul

[johnholmes]

why do you have such short telephone poles where you live Paul??

I love the last one, reminds me of scenes around my parents in 1947.

[Geordiesnow]

I think i prefer powder snow too wet snow, but i would only prefer the dry type of snow if its heavy enough too lie otherwise it will just drift around without it lying too much.

Also with dry snow, the idiots of this world can't make snowballs and throw them at windows so it kind of take away there fun.

[Polar Continental]

Quote:johnholmes

why do you have such short telephone poles where you live Paul??

I love the last one, reminds me of scenes around my parents in 1947.

Yes I have often wondered that my self John.. The last picture is one of my favourites too, it’s the Tan Hill Inn, Yorkshire, the highest pub in England, often gets cut off by snow. The pic originally appeared on the Net weather forum during winter 2006 I think.

Paul

Edited April 6, 2009 by Polar Continental

[Thundery wintry showers]

Also with dry snow, the idiots of this world can't make snowballs and throw them at windows so it kind of take away there fun.

And the responsible people of this world can't make snowballs and have harmless moderate snowball fights, or build snowmen...

[Yeti]

One thing people haven't mentioned is the accumulation rates of powder snow compared to wet snow. With decent, dry powder snow occurring with ground temps below 0 and upper air temps below -10 to -15 at 850hPa, you will find that 1mm of rain equates to 15mm of snow or more (i.e. 10mm of rain gives 15cm of snow). However, the wettest snow only gives ratios of 1:5 or better - in other words, 10mm of rain would only give you 5cm of snow instead of 15.

When you take this into account I'd take powder snow any day - the drier the snow, the better it accumulates as it's more "fluffy" and doesn't compact/melt to a wet coating like wet snow does. The beginning of December brought 10-15cm of snow to the west of the Vale of York, but I would imagine that this would have been over 20cm if temps had been colder.

Remember too, that when the temperature is above 0 and the snow is wet, the melt occurs a lot more quickly, often from the bottom upwards as happened during the RPM setup here in January.

Powder snow is the best!

[flagpole]

I just like snow. And with the paltry amounts we get each year I think it would be churlish to get picky about what type.

[Fozfoster]

Liked the pictures PC , will never get snow like that in Warwick. Powder rules!

[MP-R]

I just like snow. And with the paltry amounts we get each year I think it would be churlish to get picky about what type.

To be honest - I am of the same opinion. That's what I loved about the snow in February. The first bout when everybody was at school was the powdery stuff that looked lovely, settled nicely and felt wonderful to walk on. Then the second and third bouts were of the wetter variety so when everyone was off school, it was snowball fights and snowmen all round!

For photography though, powdery snow does just stand higher than wet snow.

[Yeti]

To be honest - I am of the same opinion. That's what I loved about the snow in February. The first bout when everybody was at school was the powdery stuff that looked lovely, settled nicely and felt wonderful to walk on. Then the second and third bouts were of the wetter variety so when everyone was off school, it was snowball fights and snowmen all round!

For photography though, powdery snow does just stand higher than wet snow.

I take your point, but that doesn't stop one being better than the other

I love any kind of snow, but powder snow is an "added bonus"; particularly for the reasons I posted above about greater accumulation rates - not, however, that I would complain about the wet variety.

Sadly, powder snow is dying out in the UK, especially the "higher grade" dentrite varieties that form at -10 to -15 upper temps. It looks like we will all have to share this attitude, if ever we are to be frequently pleased with snow in the future!

[Thundery wintry showers]

To be honest - I am of the same opinion. That's what I loved about the snow in February. The first bout when everybody was at school was the powdery stuff that looked lovely, settled nicely and felt wonderful to walk on. Then the second and third bouts were of the wetter variety so when everyone was off school, it was snowball fights and snowmen all round!

For photography though, powdery snow does just stand higher than wet snow.

I have to say I agree with you (and also Flagpole)- regardless of preferred "snow type", I consider it a bonus to get anything at all, especially these days!

Exeter, too, had three snow events this season with different kinds of snow- the first one (2nd Feb) was quite dry and powdery (but not excessively so- there were a couple of snowmen sitting around the Met Office the next morning), while those of 5-6 February and 4-5 March were wet and quite slushy, and subsequently froze to become more like ice. However, I'm told that up on Dartmoor the latter two events were quite powdery as well, the altitude as per usual making a big difference to the temperatures.

[Cheese Rice]

Wet snow is better as it causes more problems

[flagpole]

Wet snow is better as it causes more problems

What do you mean?

[sundog]

I havent got much powder snow at my location over the past number of years. Usually when it snows here the temp is between 0c and 1c so its usually the wetter type. I have often seen it snowing heavy at 0.0c and not sticking but once then it hits -0.1c it would stick insantly,amazing the differance 1/10th of a degree can make.

One thing i think ive noticed about powder snow,is that if you have lying powder snow and the temp gets anyway at all above 0c it seems to melt very quickly. It seems to melt at a faster rate when the temp gets at all above 0c then wet snow does.

[Cheese Rice]

What do you mean?

In past experience lying (not powdery) snow is harder to drive and causes more problems, because transportation is serverly affected

[flagpole]

In past experience lying (not powdery) snow is harder to drive and causes more problems, because transportation is serverly affected

And problems on the roads such as accidents and strandings are a good thing?

[Cheese Rice]

And problems on the roads such as accidents and strandings are a good thing?

Yeah, definatley :lol: , better chance of work/school been called of, whats the point in having all this snow around if you are stuck indoors at work???

[flagpole]

Yeah, definatley :lol: , better chance of work/school been called of, whats the point in having all this snow around if you are stuck indoors at work???

How old are you?

[Cheese Rice]

How old are you?

Old enough, i dont see why you cant like that, all the commotion and news covergae adds to the excitment, how many time can you say you were stranded in your car and have to bury yourself out? Also getting the call from the work saying its closed for the day, with powdery snow everything runs more or less as normal so you are stuck at work indoors looking at the snow, while with wet snow you have a day of, and those who have children will have the pleasure of telling them school is closed and having the excitment of sledging/skiing/snow ball fights/snow men making/ igloo making, powdery snow however rare it maybe to me is not that special as you need a lot more ppn for decent accumilations while wet snow you dont nedd that heavy ppn to make a big amount of snow.