Snowmelt Rates — Colorado Dust-on-Snow Program

Analyses of Wolf Creek Summit and Upper San Juan Snotel data for Water Years 2006-2016 snowmelt seasons showing date and quantity of peak SWE, days from peak SWE to “snow all gone” (SAG), total additional precipitation after the date of peak SWE, an… — Analyses of Wolf Creek Summit and Upper San Juan Snotel data for Water Years 2006-2016 snowmelt seasons showing date and quantity of peak SWE, days from peak SWE to “snow all gone” (SAG), total additional precipitation after the date of peak SWE, an “adjusted” mean daily rate of snowmelt adding the additional precipitation to the peak SWE total, the maximum five-day moving average of daily melt, and the mean air temperature over the entire snowmelt period, from peak SWE to SAG. POR refers to each snotel's entire period of record. As discussed in prior years, melt rates at the shady Wolf Creek Summit site located in thick forest are routinely slower than those at the much sunnier Upper San Juan site, located among widely scattered trees.

See our Snotel Dataset page for downloadable Excel files for each CODOS site, and an "All CODOS Sites Aggregated" Excel workbook containing spreadsheets for Water Years 2006-2016 and a summary of all years combined.