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Friday, February 23, 2007

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Snow depth only part of the story

To the Editor:

Your article about the local snowfall in the Feb. 15 Intelligencer missed an important point. The headline said "Little snow causes big headache," and the text that followed indicated that the two-to-three-inch snow accumulations that occurred in most of the area were "not significant." Snow is not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon. What was not mentioned in the article was the unusually low snow/water ratio of this storm due to the sleet and freezing rain that was mixed in.

In Furlong, the 3.1 inches of "snow" I measured had a water contents of 0.80 inches of precipitation. In a more typical snowfall, that amount of water countent would have put down between six and 18 inches of snow. The squished down ice and slush on the roads of our "non-significant" snowfall would have a similar effect on traffic as a much more significant storm of similar water content. Simply looking at the snow depth that fell is only part of the equation.

Richard Hanauer

Furlong

Link to original article which inspired the letter.