Colorado Dust-on-Snow Program: SNOTEL Datasets

Using the NRCS SNOTEL data, CSAS has assembled datasets presenting Peak SWE and subsequent snowmelt rates at 15 SNOTEL sites distributed throughout Colorado, 11 of which are near a CODOS monitoring site. The remaining 4 SNOTEL sites are in locations between CODOS sites, representing additional terrain.  Water Year 2006-2011 Snotel data were examined since this period spans our efforts to monitor dust-on-snow deposition and its effects on Colorado snowmelt behavior.  Given that short history of just six seasons, only limited summary statistics are shown (maximum, minimum, range) for seasonal, aggregated data.  Mean values are calculated for annual datasets representing all fifteen sites, but those averages are intended to be merely descriptive of those years, and not predictive of past or future years. The datasets include:

• Peak SWE
• Dates of peak SWE
• Days to 'Snow All Gone' (SAG)
• Daily SWE loss, adjusted for SWE added after peak
• Mean temp (during post-peak SWE period)

WY_SNOTEL_Summaries.xls
This workbook contains individual spreadsheets for Water Years 2006-2011 and also includes a summary of all 6 years.

SNOTEL_Site_Data.xls
This workbook contains spreadsheets for each of the 15 selected SNOTEL sites, including a summary aggregating all 15 sites.

Raw data for each site and year is available upon request. Contact Kim at kbuck@snowstudies.org.