Snow Insulation Observation

Just a neat little observation from this morning about the insulating properties of snow which came up in discussion a few times recently as some folks bank the snow against their foundations.

We got about 8 - 10 inches of snow yesterday and it stopped last night early enough for me to clear some of the driveway with the loader. I didn't clear everything since the lighting wasn't too good and didn't want to scrape the truck, car or garage with the bucket. A couple days this week were above freezing & there was a lot of runoff and puddles in the swales so I was moving a lot of slush at the base even though the temp was about 20*.

This morning I go out to clear off the vehicles and finish clearing snow. Temps got down to about 5* here overnight and the low cleared areas where the slushy water gathered as I was plowing were as hard as an ice rink. Then I stepped into the 8" of snow immediately next to the solid ice and it was still 2" of slush & water at the bottom, not frozen! All over where the snow hadn't been cleared was still slushy at the bottom. Kinda neat to see such a dividing line of ice & slush just because of the snow on top.

Yup. Here's another amazing example in reverse. Last winter my sons in-laws who live in Brule, Wisconsin (far north within a couple miles of Lake Superior) well line froze. It froze where it crossed under the driveway. The driveway had been cleared. Several feet of snow everywhere else. Oh and the well line? 7' underground. That's freakin cold!

A meteorologist on the radio said that a thermometer buried under 6 inches of snow stays a constant 31 degrees. When an outdoor thermometer fell off its perch in a windy storm and was lost under the snow, it measured precisely that all winter until the snow melted and it was found.

An igloo is surprisingly a VERY warm shelter as well.

31* is not warm !! not to live in.31* is most certainly better than -60* but I prefer a house @ 75*

I had to do some digging recently (needed a place for the bodies). After clearing a foot and a half of snow I could easily penetrate the ground with a shovel. After the dirt sat out exposed to -10 degrees overnight, I was unable to replace the dirt in the hole since it froze into a concrete like mass the a pick could hardly put a dent in.

No bull, this is real. I work in a quarry and we have hit snow in the topsoil piles ( snow that we had piled up through the winter and then piled dirt on top of ) in August when we would uncover the topsoil pile to spread. Thats Cool ! Throwing snowballs at one another in August!!