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Wes Peery on why Friday's snow will be different than what fell on Tuesday

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City area received wide-spread three to nine inches of snow on Tuesday, covering roads and driveways across the area.

If you played or worked in the snow, you may have noticed just how heavy it was or how easy it was to make snowballs. The snow coming Friday will be easier to shovel but tougher to have a snowball fight.

LINK | KSHB 41 Weather

The difference comes down to the temperatures at which the snow was created and falling through.

While it was snowing on Monday and Tuesday, it was just below freezing making the snow much wetter or heavier. The snow was melting in contact with the ground it was so warm.

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Wet sand is similar to wet snow

With Arctic air coming in with the Friday storm system, this snow will be much drier and fluffier, so you won't be able to make a snowball easily. The same thing happens when you try to build a sand castle at the beach. You can't build the castle with dry sand. The sand has to be wet so the sand particles can stick together and create that classic castle.

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Dry sand is similar to dry snow

The moisture makes the sand and snow sticky and much more malleable because of something called surface tension.

KSHB 41 Weather Academy | Explaining the different types of snowflakes

You may not be able to make much snow from this storm anyway as we are only forecasting a dusting to 2" for the Kansas City area.