6.1.5 Degree of wetness and density, 1
You can get a quick sense of a snowpack's degree of wetness (its liquid water content) by doing a simple hand-based test that lets you characterize the snowpack as dry, moist, wet, very wet, or slush. Simply squeeze a handful of snow in your gloved hand and observe the amount of water present. Use this chart to determine the snow class.
A more accurate and formal way of assessing the water content of a layer is to first measure its density (mass per unit volume, for example, grams per cubic centimeter). This is done by cutting out a predetermined volume (chunk) of snow and weighing it.
The density is then converted to water content (snow-to-liquid ratio) by dividing the measured density by the density of water.