# Measuring Snow

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/measuring-snow/156162>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 19, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/measuring-snow/156162 "2003-02-19T17:44:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/measuring-snow/156162/1 "2003-02-19T17:44:54Z")

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All I can say is that [How do they measure snowfall?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_162.html) is one of Cecil’s funniest columns ever.

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/measuring-snow/156162/2 "2003-02-20T03:13:28Z")

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Yeah, but he got the Southern Hemisphere thing entirely wrong. Down here, 10 **centimetres** of snow equals 1 **centimetre** of water.

Sheesh.

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**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/measuring-snow/156162/3 "2003-02-20T03:46:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Princhester \*  
> Yeah, but he got the Southern Hemisphere thing entirely wrong. Down here, 10 **centimetres** of snow equals 1 **centimetre** of water.

Yes, but does that centimetre of water circle the drain clockwise or counterclockwise. 😉

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**Author:** ![davanden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@davanden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davanden)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/measuring-snow/156162/4 "2003-02-20T13:09:29Z")

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The Washington Post recently ran an article about the official snow measurement for the Washington DC area. The electronic version isa avalable at [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23110-2003Feb17.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23110-2003Feb17.html)

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/measuring-snow/156162/5 "2003-02-24T15:05:56Z")

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Except that the point of his word play was to reverse the situation (water vs snow), not jibe at inches vs centimeters (or centimetres if you prefer). It wouldn’t read as funny to also switch to centimeters.