If This Crazy Rain Had Been Snow, How Much Would Bangor Have Gotten?
We really do need all this rain.
When all is said and done, there will be spots in Maine that receive a couple/few inches of rain. In a day and a half, that's absolutely insane. It's been so dry too, that last time we got some decent rain, there were flooded spots and washed-out roads, making for a 143-mile detour in one spot.
Here in the Bangor area, we're only supposed to get just over inch or two of rain. But imagine living in any of the spots we were just talking about, with all the floods and such? This all got me wondering, since this storm is a true summer Nor'Easter, how much snow would we have gotten if this were January instead of September?
The ratio varies a bit when calculating the math.
Turns out, no matter how you slice it, we'd have been 100%, absolutely buried under snow. From what I was reading on NOAA's website, the average ratio is 13 inches of snow for every inch of rain. But, that number could go higher or lower, depending on weather conditions.
For instance, if it were dry powdery snow, you could gain up to 50 inches (yes, 5-0!) of snow to equal an inch of rain. Or, 2 inches of sleet for every inch of rain. Either way, rain is ok, because who wants tons of dry snow, or half a ton of sleet? There isn't really a winning answer to that question.
So, just how much would we have gotten?
In Bangor, if we get 2 inches of rain, which would basically amount to just over 50-60 inches of snow. Basically, 4-5 feet of snow! Or 4 inches of sleet. Worse, if it was absolute bedlam and we got the dry powdery equivalent, we'd have gotten over 15 feet of snow. In one 24 hour storm. that would translate to about 7.5 inches an hour. What?!
No matter how you slice it, if this had been a winter storm, of any kind, it would have led to catastrophic circumstances for us greater Bangorians. I'm not sure what happens in nature that generally seems to prevent this, but I ain't gonna argue. I'm just gonna count my blessings that it was just another rainy day.