Snowfall Amount Question

[nickerjones]

So I'm in Calgary and I'm not used to lots of snow. What amount of snow has to be predicted to fall for Calgarians to say.. "That's going to be a big amount of snow" ? I just saw a 10cm -15 cm warning which is roughly 4-6 inches. 4-6 inches is a lot in Oklahoma but nothing crazy. I think one year I came up to Calgary for Christmas and missed a 14 inch snowstorm that went through OK.

Anyway, Just Curious?

[Cheese]

about 2 feet.

[Regular_John]

Yeah it can be a little hard to visualize, but it's roughly 84 agate lines if you're familiar with obsolete typographic measurements.

/designer joke

[GoinAllTheWay]

Depends really. The amount of snow that falls is only half the equation. The other half is if it sticks around or not. 10-20 cm isn't that bad if it melts shorlty after hitting the ground.

10-20 would be a fair bit if it does accumulate. Snow just doesn't stick around for as long as it used to. Once upon a time, once it snowed it stayed white until spring.

[Jedi Ninja]

^What GATW said. Less than 10cm is no big deal, more than 20cm is "a big amount of snow." Between 10cm and 20cm it depends on how fast it accumulates and whether or not any of it melts.

[You Need a Thneed]

Many parts of North America are capable of getting a lot more snow than we do here.

In 30+ years of living in Calgary, we've only had a handful of single snowfalls over 12 inches.

Edmonton has noticeably more snow every single year, for example.

[Bill Bumface]

^ So much so, that someone's job in the summer is to shovel around the big pile of snow that is leftover from the winter snow removals so that it actually melts by the next winter.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Cheese

about 2 feet.

I can't remember Calgary ever getting 2 feet of snow in a single snowfall, of course it can drift up to more than that.

St Patricks Day '97 was about 18 inches. In May of '86, I think Calgary may have got around that as well. I can't specifically remember getting more.

[MikeN]

Yeah, i would not even call this a warning for snow fall. I live out side of Calgary in the Foothills and we got 2-3 times the snow the city gets and even that is nothing to worry about. The real issue is all the people with winter tires who think they are gods on the road.

[Daradon]

I believe I remember a 70 cm dump not too long ago, predictions even came close to a meter. 70 cm would be 23 inches, or two feet like Cheese said. The thing is, those are in the storms that last a few days and you have accumulation. It wouldn't technically be a single day fall.

It's usually in those storms that start of as a blizzard one night then slow to a steady fall for 2 or 3 days.

Agreed it's rare. But it does happen.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by MikeN

Yeah, i would not even call this a warning for snow fall. I live out side of Calgary in the Foothills and we got 2-3 times the snow the city gets and even that is nothing to worry about. The real issue is all the people with 4x4 who think they are gods on the road.

fyp

[Kybosh]

Do what the rest of us do. Heavy snowfall warning issued = stock up your liquor cabinet. It's really quite simple.

[Mazrim]

I usually think we're getting a good dump of snow when the warning says 20-30 cm.

[Shawnski]

April 14, 2001 single day record was 23 cm. *edit... if I could read better, it was only a record for Apr 14th...

The May 1986 was 28 cm over two days (13th and 14th) I walked several miles through that to go to my first day of work at a 7-11....

Edit.. those seem low. Wonder if they mistook cm for inches, cause that one in '86 was close to 3'....

Edit2 this link shows 48.4 on May 6 1981... have to find better sources!

Edit3... just checked the Gov't of Canada website, and the May 86 and May 81 totals are what they are showing... so 48.4 cm is the record for a day.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Daradon

I believe I remember a 70 cm dump not too long ago, predictions even came close to a meter. 70 cm would be 23 inches, or two feet like Cheese said. The thing is, those are in the storms that last a few days and you have accumulation. It wouldn't technically be a single day fall.

It's usually in those storms that start of as a blizzard one night then slow to a steady fall for 2 or 3 days.

Agreed it's rare. But it does happen.

70cm would be close to 28". Just multiply by 4 for every 10cm.

[WCan_Kid]

10-15cm = 80mm waist
15-45cm = 100mm waist
45+ cm = 125mm waist

[Dion]

Stay off the roads to avoid the idots who have forgotten how to drive in snowy conditions.

[prarieboy]

If it falls straight down it's usually not to bad to deal with. The big drifts from strong winds can really wreak havoc.

The biggest problem I've ever had with snow was in May. Only time I've ever had to dig out the car. Probably one of the storms Shawnski referenced above.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Yeah it can be a little hard to visualize, but it's roughly 84 agate lines if you're familiar with obsolete typographic measurements.

/designer joke

A hundred picas for me.