Science Smarts: Why is it some snow is heavy, some snow is light?
By Patty Rooks on October 28, 2023.
“Wow,” is all I can say to the blast of winter we had this week. It was a true southern Alberta weather experience, going from beautiful skies and warm weather to heavy wet snow, ice and below-freezing temperatures in a matter of hours. The snow we had was extremely heavy – it was like lifting concrete when you tried to shovel it. Hmm… this makes me wonder, why is some snow heavier than other? Let’s get started! *Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment. Materials – Measuring cup (250 mL) – Measuring spoon – Water – Samples of snow – Zipper baggie – Kitchen scale – Science notebook – Pencil Procedure 1. Fill the measuring cup with water (as full as you can get it). 2. Pour the sample of water into the zipper baggie, close it up tightly! 3. Weigh the water sample. 4. Record the weight in your science notebook. 5. Gently scoop up a sample of snow into your 250mL measuring cup. Scoop it up lightly, DO NOT pack it down. 6. Dump the snow sample into the zipper baggie, close it up. 7. Weigh your snow sample. 8. Record this in your science notebook. 9. For sample No. 3, scoop up a sample of snow again. 10. Measure and add 60 mL of water to the sample of snow. 11. Pour this into the zipper baggie. 12. Weigh the water/snow sample. 13. Record this in your science notebook. 14. For the final sample to compare, scoop up one last sample of snow, BUT pack this in as tightly as you can into the measuring cup. 15. Dump this sample into the zipper bag. 16. Weigh and record. What is going on? Each time you weighed a sample, you had the same VOLUME but not the same weight. As we saw this week with the weather, not all snow is created equally. Fresh light and powdery snow often weighs less than the packed snow. This is because air does not weigh as much as water does. A lighter snow may only have a water content of about 1% whereas a heavy wet snowflake may contain up to 40% water making it much heavier. Patty Rooks, Senior Scientific Consultant PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community.” Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, http://www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook. Address: 12 826 11th Street SE, Medicine Hat, AB, T1A 1T7 Phone: 403-527-5365, email: praxis@praxismh.ca. 32-31
