hayduke":263pkv3v said:
...it was easy to find graphs on Snotel (I am interested in the Snowbird station) where you could ... see the overlay graphs for snowfall , ... (etc.) ...
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is primarily interested in the amount of moisture in the snow pack. Previously it was necessary to measure the snow depth and weigh a column of snow to get the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). Thus snow depths were often recorded for the old manual “Snow Courses”. For the most part, the old snow courses have been replaced by automated “Snotel” sites. These measure the weight of the snow pack on a “pressure pillow”, so that depth is not needed. However, a fair number of Snotel sites do have depth gauges. But, as Tony stated, historical snow depth data are very limited. Even though depth is measured at many of the sites, it’s often only available for the current water year. I think I’ll complain to the NRCS and ask them to make the historical depth data more available.
I’m quite sure that I’d previously found a set of NRCS or NOAA graphs that showed snow depth for the last several years. I can’t find them now. However, I did found a NOAA site that allows you to make a custom graph which includes snow depth back a few years. Go to:
http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/interactive/h ... 0000000028
You’ll get a graph for the Snowbird Snotel for the winter of 2003/2004, which seems to be the first year with depth available. You can adjust the dates for other periods. The thick light blue line is the measured snow depth. The thin light blue line is the “modeled” depth. Also note an occasional anomaly where a very high unrealistic reading may be shown. The snowpack density is shown in purple. It’s the inches of water (SWE) divided by the snow depth in inches times 100. This is the density of the entire snowpack so the readings will be higher than the density of the top layer that we like to powder ski in.
If you just want to compare years and see what years had more or less snow than normal there are some graphs that measure the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). In other words the inches of water in the snow pack. Here’s a link to a site that will allow you to taylor a graph for a given period of time.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/snoMAIN.pl?SBDU1 This link is for Snowbird. Click on the “Graph and Lister” link and change the YYYYMMDD dates to your desired range. The smooth blue line is the average SWE and the more jagged blue line is the actual SWE for the period selected. I found that the “extra large” graph size worked well on my monitor. Go to
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/snotel/ and find a “Drop-Down List” to fashion graphs for any Snotel Site, or select the UTAH link for a small scale map that shows site locations. Note that the “averages” are usually the 1971- 2000 values.
First of the month data (not a graph) for Jan – Jun (you select month and year back to 1997) are available at the following:
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/sno ... state=utah Select the “LOST” report for the desired year. It appears that depth data were only saved since 2003 for Snowbird. (When and whether depth data are saved depends on the site).
Hourly snow depth data are available for a selected day (back to the fall of 2002) using the following link:
http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/ ... ?stn=SBDU1
This loads into an Excel spreadsheet which could be copied and accumulated into another spreadsheet which could easily have a graph produced. I think if you sign up, you can then get more than one day at a time.
Lastly, here’s a link that many folks aren’t aware of. It gives the current (midnight PST) SWE, the average SWE, departure from average, and the current snow depth and snowpack density:
http://users.frii.com/global-cgi-bin/cg ... h&format=1
This takes a long time to load and sometimes isn’t available. Snowbird is found in the “PROVO R.-UTAH LAKE-JORDAN R.” basin.
Hopefully some of this will help you.
/s/ Cliff