January 15, 2020: “WATER REPORT” ARTICLE, SBB STATION DATA LINKS, SNOWPACK OBSERVATIONS
Greetings from Silverton,
Water Report Article: Center for Snow contributed an article to the December issue of the “Water Report”, a newsletter focused on water in the West. This is a plain language article about the research and monitoring we do in Senator Beck Study Basin (SBB) as well as our state-wide dust-on-snow monitoring program. The piece also discusses the main dust source area for Colorado and the potential benefits to our stressed water resources of addressing the problem. For some time now I have been wanting to write an article from our non-profit’s perspective. This is a pretty easy read for anyone wanting to get their head around the importance of our monitoring and the dust-on-snow problem here in Colorado. An ideal article to send to a friend or colleague as well. Download the pdf here.
Senator Beck Station Data Links: In October/November you may have noticed that the data links on our Current Conditions webpage were not functional. We had to temporarily shut down these links as part of our efforts to streamline and upgrade our database and web server. A few of the links on the Current Conditions page have been working for a number of weeks. We have worked out some of the bugs and the data flow is now stable. If you are interesting in viewing current weather and snowpack conditions in Senator Beck these data tables are updated every hour for three climate stations, Senator Beck Study Plot (12,200’), Swamp Angel Study Plot (11,060’), and Putney Study Plot (12,325’), and our Senator Beck stream gauge (SBSG) at 11,000’. Below is a picture of SBB with location of the stations in the watershed.
Query Data: If you query data to populate a spreadsheet for on-going analysis and decision making, I recommend querying the data files at the bottom of the table in the Current Conditions webpage, these contain the most relevant variables in one table. You can also follow these links to the data tables:
SBSP: Hourly Data. Daily Data
SASP: Hourly Data, Daily Data
PTSP: Hourly Data, Daily Data
SBSG: Hourly Data, Daily Data (the stream gauge is not operating until March)
Our near-real time graphics page is also available for a quick visual snapshot of what is happening in SBB. And, we do push data to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) and the NWS. Our data along with data from many other stations can be found on the CAIC weather station webpage. Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the data we collect and its availability.
Snowpack Observations:
We measured 13.2” of SWE at Swamp Angel yesterday. Nearby Red Mountain SNOTEL shows the same amount. We did not pick up much from a series of systems that came through over the weekend and Monday. The high winds moved a lot of snow around though, particularly above treeline there was a good amount of redistribution and sublimation going on. Even at Swamp Angel we recorded a few millimeters of precipitation yesterday afternoon, but seeing that I was there can attest it was just blowing snow.
In terms of dust-in-snow, there is nothing showing itself in our snow profiles, looking pretty good so far in terms of lack of dust and overall SWE. The past 7 days we only received about 0.5” precipitation, 2” for the month of January so far. Last week CSAS taught a week long University field course here in Silverton. The students measured inversions that showed a 35 degree Fahrenheit difference between the top of the Pass and town, where it got to as low as -25 here in Silverton. Fingers crossed for a more productive storm this Friday.
Snow School: If you are interested in attending or learning more about "Snow School for Water Managers" please contact me via email or cell phone. The class will be held at our office in Silverton, CO from February 19-21. This year we plan to have a guest NRCS hydrologist give a talk about new products and tools on their website, and even how they put a forecast together. The workshop is a mixture classroom discussion and hands-on field sessions, designed to enhance understanding of snowpack processes, snow monitoring and data. Attached is a flyer containing more details.
More Soon