We’re supposed to get an awful lot of snow in the next couple of days. But this stuff is going to melt. How much water will it produce?

We’ve consulted some experts and the answer is, it depends.

The general rule of thumb is that ten inches of average snow is the equivalent of an inch of water. But if it’s wet snow or if it’s snow that’s mixed with freezing rain and ice, we might get an inch of water for three to five inches of snow. And if it’s the real, real cold stuff, it might take 20 inches of snow to produce an inch of water.

Which reminds us of an story told at the local liar’s club several years ago.

One year we had a very cold winter just after we’d had a very, very dry summer. We had a big snow storm. One of our farmers sent some of that snow to the University for analysis and it came back only 35% moisture. It was so dry that we just shoved it off the road into a ditch and burned it.

We don’t think this snow is going to be burnable. And when it melts, it might cause more headaches with some local flooding. The ground is frozen and all of this snow won’t sink in very much.

But, hey, there’s reason for optimism. This is February now. And snow doesn’t last forever in February the way it does in January, and did. February is a short month and by the end of February, men are playing baseball again. And Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray are chasing NASCAR dreams again.

There are signs we will survive this winter, signs that this too shall pass, or melt.