Wind-blown Snow as a Water Resource
Basics of Blizzards and Snowdrift Control
Evaporation of Blowing Snow
Even when it's way below freezing, wet clothes hung outside in winter winds
will dry. The water freezes and the ice evaporates, like it does when those
winds mix snow into blizzards. One result is that wind can move snow only so
far before it all evaporates. That limit depends on the storm, but the
average distance for a winter is about the same, year-to-year. Before we look
at details, let's look at the bottom line for blizzard evaporation.
Fetch is the distance the wind travels without meeting obstructions like
willows and trees in a creek bottom, or something else that traps all the
drifting snow. Both theory and experiments show that 80 percent of snow
drifting off a five-mile fetch evaporates. Whoa! That's a bunch.
To Blizzard Basics