Weight of snow…

So with all this snow, my daughter asked me why we couldnt go ice fishing this weekend because the snow helps the lakes freeze. I laughed a little bit and started to explain to her the snow is heavy and acts like a blanket for the ice… Well she really didn’t buy the blanket part, so I tried to show her how heavy snow really is. Well hoping I’m not a bad father explaining this to her, this is what I found on google and used some old fashion math:

Ken Hellevang, from the University of North Dakota says:

“The weight of snow varies greatly. Light fluffy snow may only weigh about seven pounds per cubic foot. More average snow may weigh 15 pounds per cubic foot and drifted compacted snow may weigh 20 pounds or more…”

Let’s figure this out…
There are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot of water – that’s about 62.4 pounds.

For Wet Snow
Let’s say wet snow would be equivalent to 1″ of rain or 5″ of snow, you would get a resulting 62.4/5 = 12.5 pounds.

For Light, Fluffy Snow
Let’s say fluffy snow would be equivalent to 2.5″ of water and 12″ snow, you would get 62.4/12 = 5.2 pounds.

With that being said, there are 43, 560 sqft in 1 Acre.
Say we got an 5″ of heavy and 12″ of fluffy over all those past couple days to make the math work properly, the. Average them

1 acre of heavy wet snow would be 544,500 lbs or 272 tons
1 acre of light fluffy snow would be 226,512 lbs or 113 tons
1 acre average 385,506 lbs or 192 tons
Now to me that sound crazy for just one small acre!

Now am I doing something wrong or are these realistic numbers!

lost you at lets figure this out…

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So with all this snow, my daughter asked me why we couldnt go ice fishing this weekend because the snow helps the lakes freeze. I laughed a little bit and started to explain to her the snow is heavy and acts like a blanket for the ice… Well she really didn’t buy the blanket part, so I tried to show her how heavy snow really is. Well hoping I’m not a bad father explaining this to her, this is what I found on google and used some old fashion math:

Ken Hellevang, from the University of North Dakota says:

“The weight of snow varies greatly. Light fluffy snow may only weigh about seven pounds per cubic foot. More average snow may weigh 15 pounds per cubic foot and drifted compacted snow may weigh 20 pounds or more…”

Let’s figure this out…

There are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot of water – that’s about 62.4 pounds.

For Wet Snow

Let’s say wet snow would be equivalent to 1″ of rain or 5″ of snow, you would get a resulting 62.4/5 = 12.5 pounds.

For Light, Fluffy Snow

Let’s say fluffy snow would be equivalent to 2.5″ of water and 12″ snow, you would get 62.4/12 = 5.2 pounds.

With that being said, there are 43, 560 sqft in 1 Acre.

Say we got an 5″ of heavy and 12″ of fluffy over all those past couple days to make the math work properly, the. Average them

1 acre of heavy wet snow would be 544,500 lbs or 272 tons

1 acre of light fluffy snow would be 226,512 lbs or 113 tons

1 acre average 385,506 lbs or 192 tons

Now to me that sound crazy for just one small acre!

Now am I doing something wrong or are these realistic numbers!

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Not sure why you’re trying to calculate the weight of 12″ of snow, as it was already calculated for you.

12″ of light/fluffy=7lbs

12″ of moderate snow=15lbs

12″ of heavy snow=20lbs

Multiply each by the square footage in an acre and you’ll have the answer to how much weight is on a 1 acre lake.

My calculations show roughly 72 tons for 6″ of light/fluffy snow. (7*43560)/2000=152.5tons for 12″ of snow 152.5/2=76.2tons for 6″ of light/fluffy snow.

Just imagine hand shoveling a 1 acre parking lot after 17″ of snow and the weight seems that much more likely. As far as I can tell your math checks.

How far did your daughter stay with you on the calculations? Lol

I believe your math is wrong. You calculated the weights by cubic ft. but figured out the acre in square ft. You really need to calculate how many cubic ft are in an acre with 12″ of snow and how many cubic ft are in an acre with 5″ of snow. Then multiply those numbers by how much a cubic ft of heavy and light snow is. You need to get all your units of measurement the same, so that you are compairing apples to apples.

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I believe your math is wrong. You calculated the weights by cubic ft. but figured out the acre in square ft. You really need to calculate how many cubic ft are in an acre with 12″ of snow and how many cubic ft are in an acre with 5″ of snow. Then multiply those numbers by how much a cubic ft of heavy and light snow is. You need to get all your units of measurement the same, so that you are compairing apples to apples.

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As far as an acre is concerned square feet and cubic feet are both 43,560.

another reason why early snow is no good!

Now can somebody figure out the buoyancy ratio of 6″s of ice per sq’ with this snow on top.

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Now can somebody figure out the buoyancy ratio of 6″s of ice per sq’ with this snow on top.

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43560 would be the cubic feet for light snow.

18141 would be the cubic feet for heavy snow.

If all of the number are correct here is the algebraic expressions for figuring it all out for tons per acre

Variable A=inches of snow fall

Light Snow [(0.2083A)÷12×62.4]43560÷2000= tons per acre

Heavy Snow [(0.0834A)÷12×62.4]43560÷2000= tons per acre

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43560 would be the cubic feet for light snow.
18141 would be the cubic feet for heavy snow.

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I don’t think is is right…
The area of the Acre is constant which would be 43560 sqft LxW and snow has volume and you can only measure that way.

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43560 would be the cubic feet for light snow.
18141 would be the cubic feet for heavy snow.

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I think there is a difference between weight not cubic feet. A cubic foot is a cubic foot, it is volume. You can have a cubic foot of feathers and a cubic foot of concrete they take up the same amount of area but do not way the same. And then there is the footprint which is square feet not cubic. I’m heading to the lake to see if the ice is safe or not, this is making my head hurt. God Bless to all and safe and quality fishing. I’m outta Heeerrrreeeee.

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43560 would be the cubic feet for light snow.
18141 would be the cubic feet for heavy snow.

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I think there is a difference between weight not cubic feet. A cubic foot is a cubic foot, it is volume. You can have a cubic foot of feathers and a cubic foot of concrete they take up the same amount of area but do not way the same. And then there is the footprint which is square feet not cubic. I’m heading to the lake to see if the ice is safe or not, this is making my head hurt. God Bless to all and safe and quality fishing. I’m outta Heeerrrreeeee.

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Good Luck!

your right the area of an acre doesn’t change but cubic feet is determined by L x W x H so 5″ is the same as .4167 feet, you can figure this out by taking 1x1x.4167 to get the cubic foot measurement. If you want the same equation for an acre (208.71 makes a perfect square for an acer) so you length and width are both 208.71. For heavy snow 208.71 x 208.71 x .4167= 18151 cubic ft of snow. Concrete is figured out the same way and I have done plenty of that so I’m confident in my numbers. I also put in the algebraic expression in my last post.

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You can have a cubic foot of feathers and a cubic foot of concrete they take up the same amount of area but do not way the same.

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But which one weighs more: 100 lbs of concrete or 100 lbs of feathers?

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You can have a cubic foot of feathers and a cubic foot of concrete they take up the same amount of area but do not way the same.

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But which one weighs more: 100 lbs of concrete or 100 lbs of feathers?

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You can have a cubic foot of feathers and a cubic foot of concrete they take up the same amount of area but do not way the same.

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But which one weighs more: 100 lbs of concrete or 100 lbs of feathers?

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The answer to that has some variables you have to take in consideration. First great taste or less filling, moon phase, rotation of the earth wind direction, was the roster pointed more to the north or the south when he first crowed in the morning and to use coke or pepsi as a mixer?