I'm curious to see where Alta-Guard ends up for the year. Records there go back to 1945–46, although they are November to April rather than October to April. The previous record is 745.4" for November to April set in 1994–95. They haven't sent in their April observations to the Utah Avalanche Center yet.
A lot of people ask me about differences between the various measurement sites in upper Little Cottonwood. There are three that I have access to. Alta Ski Area, Alta-Guard, and the Alta Coop site. They measure in three different locations. They may not use the same measurement practices (i.e., times and frequency). Finally, those locations and practices may have changed over the years. Perhaps they used to measure every 24 hours or at the end of the storm, but have shifted to every 12 hours or some other approach. Perhaps they moved the measurement locations. These changes do affect the measurements and the time series. We have discussed this previously.
That said, there is little doubt that this year was an epic. Congrats to Alta on the record. 700 for next season I hope.
Not exactly a weather issue more of a hydrological question: Anyway to predict the snowmelt runoff - i.e. stream flow volumes and intensity - in BCC, LCC, Millcreek, et al. - in differing scenarios for the next several months? Seems like there's quite a vast temporary reservoir sitting atop the Wasatch.
ReplyDeleteThe weather service does run models for that. They can be accessed at https://www.cbrfc.noaa.gov/lmap/lmap.php. These should be treated as guidance. Monitor for watches and warnings.
DeleteThanks for that link JS!!
DeleteAccording to the Alta/Jonathan Morgan tweet that your re-tweeted the current Alta Collins study plot has been in the same place since the 1980/81 season. It would be good to know if the frequency of measuring has changed since 1980?
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