Eli5: Why does shovelling snow feel heavier when it’s wet? Isn’t the volume of water (snow) the same?

Question

In Toronto last night there was a big storm and today the sun’s out melting everything; shovelling today’s wet snow feels much more difficult than yesterday

In: 0

Answer 1

Wet snow occupies more volume than light fluffy cold snow.

Volume is a measure of the amount of space that a substance or object occupies or that is enclosed within a container.

Wet snow occurs when at any point during the snow falling from the atmosphere to the surface, the temperature gets above freezing. This causes snowflakes to melt and stick together creating heavy, wet snow. The more a snowflake melts, the heavier it becomes due to its higher water content and volume.