The parameters for determination of the perfection of any given snowfall are as follows: 1) time of year and specifically at what point in the winter “season” that the fall occurs 2) duration of the fall and at what hour(s) and most importantly, what day of the week 3) total snow depth 4) moisture content, which determines weight and flakiness quality. This final factor can be straightforward, especially in more arid climates, or very complex in humid ones.
An overarching consideration is the location of the fall: a ski resort area has very different standards than an urban one, the latter of which is under consideration in this treatise. An ancillary factor is the weather post-fall; a week or more of subfreezing temperatures (hideously common in New England) that prolongs the presence of the fall (and/or subsequent falls that pile on top of the one in question) can greatly affect quality of life, as anybody who was around for the Blizzard of ’78 in the Boston area can testify. This is a whole other matter entirely, deserving of its own treatise, and shall not be addressed here. Neither will “quality of life” which is intensely personal for most people.
How other species in the natural world rate snowfalls will also not be discussed, besides being impossible to determine accurately.1) a snowfall that occurs outside the months of October to April cannot be perfect;light snowfall Oct-Nov and March-April and heavy in the other months is the best2) the best snowfalls last three to four hours, preferably very early Sunday morning; the worst go on and on and on for twelve hours or more on a weekday with high winds; a perfect snowfall generally requires that it be sunny the next day with light winds – these are by far the best conditions for getting to know your neighbors; this falls this past winter have failed miserably on most of these criteria3) 8-10 inches of snow is usually perfect, anything less has potential; any fall on top of previous falls can sometimes be perfect but is all too often disastrous, unless you’re a skier where it’s always at least good4) the lighter and fluffier the snow, the better, as any fool knows; in Boston, as with most coastal areas, snowfalls are often a mix of fluffy and heavy, as different bands pass through, and one often gets layers in the end, geological fashion; it is common to brush the snow off the windshield, only to find a tenacious thick layer of ice sticking to the glass.This is all quite incomplete but leaves much to ponder and debate. To finish, I offer images below from the perfect snowfall of last night, a fluffy one-incher that was lovely to behold as it fell and which has been followed by high 40s and sunny today. It helps that we’re going biking and not skiing. John
