Average Annual Snowfall in Warsaw ?

Why does everyone in the world believe that Warsaw (or Poland for that matter) is usually covered by 3 metres of snow all year round?

All of the on-line information tells us that there is only about 13cm per year.

worldtravelguide.net/city/135/statistics/Europe/Warsaw.html

guides.travelchannel.com/warsaw/city-guides/fun-facts

I'm not sure but what do you think?

In 2006 there was snow on the ground constantly for around four months here in Dolnoslaskie, the winters of 2007 & 2008 and have seen sporadic snow fall with snow on the ground for around two weeks in 2007 and maybe four in 2008. Freeze thaw conditions you see.

there has been a lot of snow where I live last winter - about 45 cm lay for a month - but as Wroclaw Boy said before it was freeze-thaw - 3 meters of snow even in the snowiest years only happen in roadside ditches (and in some mountain circumstances) - snow tends to fill the holes in the surface when in abundance, even the worst snowdrifts rarely exceed 1m (but a snowdrift of only 40-50 cm can be a serious traffic obstacle) - there were a couple of years that there was really much snow in the eighties - I remember one year when there lay about 80cm to 1m snow for a good couple of weeks - but recently winters have been milder - in 2007 there was no frost and snow untill Christmas - some people were picking mushrooms in December

How do they work out that the average annual snowfall in Warsaw is only 13-15cm? I've seen that much come down in a couple of hours

well don't know that in fact - but a couple of factors may be important - snow does not have always the same density - fresh snow is much lighter than snow after a couple of weeks, snow that falls in deep freezing condition is much lighter than wet snow - maybe they use some average calculated from the water residue after snow melts

then there is a possibility they meant an average snow cover (not globally summed snowfall - but actually I doubt it)

yes to me it also appears that for the average yearly snowfall the figure is too low - I would see it over 20cm - but then again last couple of years (last year was sort of an exception) weren't that really snowy

You can believe that if you want. But anybody who has lived in Warsaw for more than a decade and noticed that there is more than 13cm of snow at least one night in every winter can work out that the on-line 'information' is wrong.

According to bbc 40 (and BBC weather is usually pretty accurate) in December Warsaw has 4.4cm of precipitation, in January 2.7cm and in February 3.2cm. Using the old rule of thumb about one inch of rain equaling ten inches of snow, if all precipitation in those months is rain (not an unreasonable assumption given that the average maximum temperature is pretty much freezing point in all three months) that gives us 44cm of snow in December, 27cm in January and 32cm in February.

Alternatively, you can just carry on being a smug git and claim "It's online somewhere so it must be right!" while people who have spent more than 15 minutes in Warsaw over the winter politely point out that you're talking bollocks.