Is too thick to measure - from Nevada's Reno Gazette-Journal:
Snow data confirm drought-busting Sierra Nevada winter
One sure sign the Sierra Nevada is experiencing a historic winter is the snowpack is getting too deep for devices scientists use to measure it.
It’s a problem that cropped up Wednesday when researchers sought to confirm snow depth at a data site on Slide Mountain at Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe near Reno.
“We’re not even close,” hydrologist Jeff Anderson said after jamming an aluminum tube more than 16 feet into the snowpack hoping to reach the ground below.
The snow-measuring snafu provided real life confirmation of what scientific instruments on the site already showed.
The Sierra Nevada is wrapping up a historic winter and that’s huge news for Nevada and California, states that have spent the past several years mired in drought.
“Who would have thought this two years ago when we were measuring the worst snowpack on record,” Anderson said.
The snowpack is 212 inches deep at the Slide Mountain SNOTEL site. Water content at the site was 74.6 inches, meaning there’s more than six feet of water in the 17-foot snowpack. It’s a record for March 1 at the site.
The SNOTEL website can be found here at the Natural Resources Conservation Service: Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) and Snow Course Data and Products - a nicely done clickable map for the Western States, Canada and Alaska.
Leave a comment