From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
It’s improbable, but not impossible, that a dead elk lying on a snow pillow could throw the state’s snow moisture forecast off course.
“We inspect all the Snotel sites at least once a year during the summer. Some strange things happen,” said Karl Wetlaufer, a hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, answering a query about the deceased critter in question — which may or may not be an urban (arboreal?) legend.
Wetlaufer outlined the NRCS snow survey and water supply forecast programs for the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District at its monthly meeting Wednesday.
“I know I don’t have to tell you that snow is the major supply of water in the West and in Colorado,” he said.
The NRCS maintains 114 Snotel sites and 95 snow courses in Colorado. About 20 total are in the Arkansas River basin.
Snow courses are measured the old-fashioned way by trekking in on snowshoes. Many have been measured since the 1930s.
Snotel, short for snow telemetry, uses snow pillows to weigh and project the depth of snow at certain points, which are usually placed at traditional snow course locales. Temperature and precipitation readings are also taken.
The readings can be taken constantly and are beamed to scientists by bouncing electronic signals off ionized meteor trails.
Yes, seriously.
The data are compared to historical means and used to compute the snow water equivalent, or the amount of water contained in the snow. The NRCS translates the information into various reports, maps, graphs and tables which are available online at state and federal websites.
The products include interactive maps that show trends over a wide area, water forecasts for river basins or can be customized to zero in on just two or three stations, Wetlaufer said.
Colorado is in good shape so far this year, about 112 percent of normal, thanks to storms in the past two weeks, he added.
