Terry Evans, age 11, of Rockford, Ill For his question:

How many inches of snow make one inch of rainfall?

Some snow is lighter than others, with more pockets oik air between the fluffy flakes. It takes a thick blanket of this snow to equal the water in one.inch of rainfall. Snow made from small, hard. Granules produces more water when it melts, but even an inch of hard, frozen ice does not equal a full inch of liquid rainfall.

The amount of liquid water in a snowfall varies and depends upon the kind of snow and how densely it is packed. Over a large watershed where winter snow must be estimated in tericb of drainage, the experts take samples from widely separated spots. On an average, it takes about eight inches of snow to equal the water in one inch of rainfall.