With the clean up from this week’s spring storm well underway, the question on everyone's mind is, “How much snow did we get?”

"That is a great question, and one that’s a little challenging to determine if you weren't measuring throughout the storm," said CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "Because a fair amount of that first round of snow Sunday night to Monday afternoon melted, the overall storm total would be challenging to estimate now, but with weather enthusiasts around the province right on it, we were able to get some estimated totals."

Environment Canada released storm snowfall totals Wednesday based on data collected from their volunteer network including Amateur Radio Weather Net and CoCoRaHs.

  • Winnipeg 15-29cms
  • Morris 23cms
  • High Bluff 19.6
  • Ste Anne 16.6
  • Portage la Prairie/ Whiteshell 15.2
  • St. Pierre 13.5
  • Altona 10-15 (RainWatcher)
  • Brandon 10-14
  • Steinbach 9.1
  • Emerson 8.9
  • Miami 5-10

"Overall, a good shot of snow from a typical spring storm, and most importantly that snow was moisture rich, which will go a long way to restoring some of our topsoil moisture," said Sumner.

Just how much liquid water equivalent was in this week's snowfall is difficult to say, but Sumner noted there are ways to estimate how much.

"The old rule of thumb is a 10 to 1 ratio, as in for every 10 inches of snow you receive, there is the equivalent of one inch of water. This is called the snow ratio."

Recent research has shown that ratio may be a little high for our part of the Prairies and the upper midwest of the U.S., with a 12 to 1 ratio more appropriate.

"There are also a number of factors that impact the liquid water content within snow, and the snow ratio can change within a snowfall event," noted Sumner. "Things like how much ice there is in the snow producing cloud, wind speed and the air temperature of the region can all lead to a higher ratio, meaning more snow to equal one inch of water."

According to Sumner, for this week's spring storm, the snow ratio will be relatively lower, which you can anecdotally tell by how heavy it is to shovel.

Over last weekend, Environment Canada had predicted there could be 15 to 30mm of moisture depending on how much snow your area received, and that would be the equivalent of 6/10ths to 1.2 inches.