I cut the top of a 16.9 ounce water bottle off, and filled it flush to the top with loose dry snow to let melt and measure. The cut bottle measured right at 5½ inches tall, once it melted down there was right at ¾ of an inch of water. That’s only about 13.64% of the initial volume, meaning the snow was about 86.36% air.
We also just got a weather update for our town, they’re saying we got about 7 inches of snow, which would have only been just shy of an inch of rain (about 61/64 of an inch), if it hadn’t come down as snow.
Edit: 7 inches ≈ 1 banana
http://bananaforscale.info/#!/convert/length/7/inches/bananas
Normal norwegian figures are 10mm snow is 1mm rain. Not to far off your 86% air
Now I’m curious how much the different types of snow shapes translate to volume 🤔
Here’s the best related scientific video I’ve seen on the subject of snow and snowflakes so far…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ao2Jfm35XeE