Wednesday Winter Storm: snowfall vs snow depth
We’ve got a heck of a winter storm on the way for Wednesday across Nebraska and it appears the Omaha Metro will finally see it’s first big snow of the season. Let’s talk about something that bugs me as a meteorologist and something that people usually don’t understand: there’s a difference between snowfall and snow depth.
Snowfall
Snowfall is pretty straight forward. It’s the measurement of newly fallen snow. It can be measured several times over the course of the event and then added up after snow stops to get the overall snowfall total. The NWS usually has a very specific and protected spot to pull these measurements.
Snow Depth
Snow Depth is defined as the total depth of snow on the ground and is reported to the nearest whole inch once a day. Snow Depth is not a measurement of snowfall because snow melts and compacts and drifts.
This will be important to keep in mind with the upcoming winter storm due to the wet, heavy snow that’s expected and how much that snow will compact over time. Let’s take a look at the difference.
EURO ENSEMBLE SNOWFALL TOTALS: Averages 8-10” of snowfall across the Omaha Metro.
EURO ENSEMBLE SNOW DEPTH: Averages 3-5” of snow depth on the ground across the Omaha Metro.
What a difference! So you can clearly see there’s a giant spread between these two parameters. So if you’re not going out and pulling measurements 4 times during the event, clearing your snow board every time, and adding up the measurements at the end then you’re not getting an accurate picture of snowfall. If you wait to pull your measurement after the event, you’re getting a pretty good understanding of the snow depth after compaction.
Bottom Line
National Blend of Models Snowfall Forecast: 4 - 7” across the Omaha Metro
I fully expect a good snow out of this one. There is going to be a very sharp cutoff of “decent snow” and “disappointing snow” and I think it’s going to be just south of I-80. If I had to take a crack at it…somewhere in Cass or Otoe County and then to the southwest. I’d say 4-8” of snowfall sounds pretty good to me right now. Higher totals will be north of Omaha and lower totals will be south.
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