Betsy Reed, age 9, of Winston $alem, N.C., for her question:

How many inches of snow Equal an inch of rain?

Some snow flakes are fluffy light feathers, some are hard little grains like fiosty sugar. A lot of moisture is frozen to cover the ground with a carpet of hard and solid snow. Less moisture is used to make the big fluffy flakes. Sooner or later the snow melts and the liquid water is equal to so much rainfall.

A fresh carpet of fluffy light snow 6 inches deep Equals about 1 inch of rainfall. In a deep drift that has been piling up all winter, 2 inches of snow may equal 1 inch of rain. The weatherman sometimes must guess the amount of snow over a large region. If he cannot measure each little pocket, he figures that 10 inches of snow Equal 1 inch of rainfall.