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How to Figure Out Snow Density | In the Snow, WY United States | 04/23/09, by Mr Wizard

Skiing The Backcountry Image
Determining the snow density can be very helpful in regards to snow pack evaluation and determining whether or not the skiing will be over the head fluff or A.C.L. ripping sludge.  It's also useful for determining how much water will be available to use for drinking, industry and if you're not a dirty hippy, showering. 

The video below shows a scientist in Oregon taking a sample.  He is actually getting paid to go backcountry skiing!  Why didn't I think of this?  I might just have to become a "scientist" next year...  One of the guys in this research group plans to live on the Collier Glacier of the North Sister all summer long to take measurements and determine whether climate change is real.

If you would like to measure snow density as part of your avalanche hazard study, it's pretty easy to do. The easiest way is to use a cylinder like a pvc pipe or film canister (does anybody even have film canisters anymore? Where do people put their spare change??). Fill it to capacity but not overflowing with snow, then weigh the cylinder (watch the video).


Thanks to the OSU profs for the video demonstration on how to measure snow density.

Density is defined as mass per unit volume, in other words it's the mass of a given amount of substance divided by the volume occupied by that amount.

Formula for Volume of a Cylinder
volume = π  x ( diameter/2) 2 x length

Formula for Density
Density = mass/volume
*For those of us who flunked science, mass is how much it weighs. Be sure to subtract the weight of the canister that you are using to weigh the snow.

Snow Density generally ranges from 100-500 kg/m-3 where light powdery snow is around 100 kg/m-3 and heavy wet snow is usually around 500 kg/m-3.

Snow Water Equivalent
Fresh water usually has a density of 1000 kg/m-3. To find the percentage of snow water equivalent just divide your snow density by 1000. So if we had a density of 100 the snow water equivalent would be 10%.

So have fun out there and let us know if you have any questions or additions to this.

Here is a good link to for monitoring snow density.


That's Our Opinion. What's Yours?

Telemonster wrote on 04/23/09 at 06:56:29 am pst:

Correction (from an enginerd)- Mass and weight are not the same thing. Mass is a property that is independent of gravitation force (i.e., it's the same on the moon as it is on earth as it is in space). Weight is a force, which can be calculated by multiplying the mass by the appropriate gravitational acceleration. Not that this really matters for the purpose of measuring snow density . . . thanks for the informative article!


Mr Wizard wrote on 04/23/09 at 09:12:45 am pst:

Thanks for the correction! As i mentioned above, i WAS one of those science flunkies :)



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