ROCHESTER, N.Y. – It is November, so somebody has to be getting the snow. During this past weekend, the states of Colorado and New Mexico have been digging out. However, there was a problem with this snowfall. It was not the light, fluffy type of snow, but more of a heavy, moisture-laden type of snow. As a result, there were many power outages and accidents on area roadways in this part of the country.

The specific area for this snow accumulation was from Denver, Colorado south to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I have some relatives who live in the community of Colorado Springs (which is just south of Denver) and they measured a solid two feet of heavy wet snow. According to local meteorologists, this was the most snowfall for Colorado in November going back some 30 years.

Often it is not the amount of snow that is the problem, but the amount of water content that is more problematic. For example, if you measure 12 inches of light fluffy snow, that may translate into a ratio of fifteen to one. That means you correlate 12 or 15 inches of snow to one inch of liquid equivalent water. The higher the air temperature usually corresponds to a heavier, wetter snowfall as the air can hold more moisture.  If you go to a ten-to-one ratio, we add more moisture to the snowfall and correspondingly we see increases in the roof loads. Once we reached the ratio of five to one in past years this was called “heart attack snow”. This pushes snow loads on an average roofing system to 12.5 pounds per square foot. Most roofing systems can handle 20 pounds per square foot and very rarely is this exceeded in Western New York.

It is just a matter of time before Western New York sees a light snow or a heavy weighted snowfall. However, at least for now, there is nothing for us in the foreseeable future.