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

There’s loads of empty air in dry snow. Wet snow it’s just heavy due to additional water.

Imagine a towel dry vs wet , same volume different weight