Man-made vs. Nature-made Snow

Thankfully, I snowboarded a few days this year.  As our natural snow began to melt, Mt. Wachusett  gave Mother Nature some help and made more snow for the trails.  I noticed that this snow was a lot heavier. My friend Jeff suggested we look at the difference in water content in natural snow vs. man-made snow.  So I took my grandfather’s old graduated cylinder, and filled it with equal amounts of  newly fallen snow and then with man-made snow from Mt. Wachusett!  I only took these pictures after the snow began to melt. Please note that  both times the graduated cylinder was filled with snow up to the 32 oz mark!

Newly fallen snow

Man-made snow

Being that the newly fallen snow was heavy, this told me that the water content of the snow would be more than a lighter, fluffier snow.  When 4 cups (32 oz) of the newly fallen snow melted, I was left with a tad over a half cup of water (4.5 oz). When the man-made snow melted…. WOW!

Water content in newly fallen snow = 4.5 oz

Water content in man-made snow = 19.5 oz

The man-made snow had a little over 4 times the amount of water as the newly fallen snow! 

Try this at home with snow from different storms OR snow that has laid on the ground for a while vs. newly fallen snow. And if you ski or snowboard, melt some mountain snow to see the water content of your mountain’s man-made snow!