To answer the question of what kind of snow we will be seeing, we have to look into snow-to-liquid ratios. A "heavy and wet" snow would be when you get 5-8 inches of snow for 1 inch of liquid precipitation, or a 5:1 ratio. A "typical" or "average" snow is around 10 inches of snow to 1 inch of water. A "dry and fluffy" snow is closer to 15 or 20 inches of snow for 1 inch of water.
Surface and low-level temperatures directly impact the type of snow we see, as colder air cannot hold as much water and therefore results in the drier snows. While temperatures near or even above freezing result in the wetter snow which is typically slushier in nature.
Our surface temperature will likely hug the mid to upper 20s for most of the duration of this snowfall event, so our snow-to-liquid ratio will be in the neighborhood of 10:1 or 15:1. Snow will start out drier at first, turning a bit more watery by Saturday evening, then dry again early Sunday morning as snow wraps up. An average snow-to-liquid ratio for our upcoming snow event this weekend will be close to 12:1, or 12 inches of snow for 1 inch of water.
Much of the Stateline will see around 0.6" to 0.8" of total liquid precipitation. If you multiply the average 0.7" liquid rain by our estimated snow to liquid ratio of 12, you get around 8.4" of potential snow. This falls right in the middle of our forecast range of 6-10" of snow across the Stateline.
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