QUESTION:
What is your annual precipitation?

        From Knoxville Middle School Students


ANSWER from John Booth,Science Technician
            Palmer Station, Antarctica         
            Sat, 15 Feb 1997 23:44:59 -0500
 

Dear Knoxville Middle Schoolers,

Palmer Station's average annual precipitation is approximately
30 inches (melted).  Average annual snowfall is about 150 inches,
or 12.5 feet.  Since it takes roughly ten inches of snow to make one
inch of water, this means that about half of our total precipitation
falls as snow, while the rest is in the form of rain or drizzle.

For the sake of comparison, the average precipitation in Des Moines
(which I imagine is close to what you get in Knoxville) is about 31
inches per year, so you get about the same as us.  One significant
difference, however, is in the distribution of the accumulation.
In most of the continental United States, precipitation often comes
in concentrated bursts (think summer thunderstorms) with relatively
long intervals between events.  At Palmer Station, days with some
form of precipitation probably outnumber completely "dry" days by
a ratio of four or five to one.  During one eight week stretch this
past September/October/November we had only *one* day without
recorded precipitation.  To compensate for this, we rarely have
truly drenching outbursts.

Thanks for your question!
John Booth