Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Snow Nerds and Summer Skiers

This morning I took a peek at the Upper Colorado River Basin SNOTEL Snow Precipitation Update Report. Specifically I was checking out the Grizzly Peak Snotel site. This is a federal government snow measuring site just across the road from A-Basin. It gives a good indication of seasonal snowfall in the the Snake River Basin. As of May 14, the snowpack or Snow Water Equivalent, is 175% of the long term average. The Water Year to Date Precipitation is 126% of the long term average. The water year starts October 1. This tells us two things. 1) This water year we have seen a lot of precipitation, and 2) the heavy precipitation, the late season precipitation and the cooler weather has created a very unseasonably deep snowpack. The outlook for summer skiing.........GOOD.

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/reports/UpdateReport.html?textReport=Upper+Colorado+River+Basin&textRptKey=16&textFormat=SNOTEL+Snow%2FPrecipitation+Update+Report&StateList=Select+a+State&RegionList=16&SpecialList=Select+a+Special+Report&MonthList=May&DayList=14&YearList=2014&FormatList=N0&OutputFormatList=HTML&textMonth=May&textDay=14&CompYearList=select+a+year