45 years ago, it took a week’s effort on a Ski-doo Alpine to get the data I can download in 10 minutes. We were high-tech then – two tracks and a single ski on each snow machine, and clockwork powering the recorders that kept track of the water equivalent setting on the snow pillow. Now there are fewer stations – and the missing Bald Eagle Peak data reminds me of the winter climbs up the mountain, carrying the heavy sampling tubes, on snowshoes. Probably the hardest work of all, and that data collection no longer maintained.
The simple description of the snowpack is that it is a bit lower than average, but next month will provide enough data for the NRCS hydrologist to start projecting data. We always tried to have the measurements done for the first of the month, so I looked on January 31. The ten-minute download from the places I once spent the better part of a week getting to is:
|Water Equivalent||Percent of Average|
|Banfield Mountain||10.4 inches||87%|
|Hawkins Lake||15.5 inches||96%|
|Garver Creek||7.1 inches||103%|
|Stahl Peak||20.7 inches||89%|
|Grave Creek||8.6 inches||81%|
|Poorman Creek||17.1 inches||75%|
|Bear Mountain||30.2 inches||82%|
|Hand Creek||6.0 inches||81%|
|Noisy Basin||23.0 inches||90%|
To get to the data – and the map – you just click https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/snow/ . It also provides elevations of the sites so you can get a great idea of how the winter snow is up high. Making the data so readily available makes hydrology a science for everyone.