Measuring snowfall in windy conditions

[chipsterva69]

I have a question that has probably been asked before and answered a couple times over, but I can't find it... so I will toss it out again.

How is snowfall measured during blizzard conditions with high wind? I live in northern Virginia and during the second of our recent major snowstorms, we had high winds that shifted all over the compass (we even had whiteout conditions for about an hour - I hadn't seen that since my days living out in Idaho!). The official measure was another 10" of snow, but according to the measuring stick in the yard, we lost 3"!

Thanks in advance!

[Bill O]

Official measurements are taken every 6 hours and each time the snow is wiped clean and allowed to accumulate again. You may have recored less on your snow stake due to settling more than wind. Also, the recent storms have proven that snowfall is highly variable even across a town, even more so over tens of miles.