6.1.16 SNOTELs
The United States’ Natural Resources Conservation Service operates an extensive, automated system for collecting snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States and Alaska. This system is called SNOwpack TELemetry or SNOTEL for short. The SNOTEL network consists of over 750 measuring sites over complex terrain.
The table shows the physical properties measured and tools involved.
This example shows SNOTEL SWE measurements for a site in California in 2008 and 2009 (up to mid-March). The plot is useful because it shows the data in a historical context, since 1971. Note that the maximum values of SWE typically occur in late February/early March.