Measuring snowpack water content

Lakegeezer · 03-14-2008, 07:20 AM

While playing with the 22" of snowpack in my front yard this morning, I noticed it has changed a lot in the past week or so. The top 20" is corn snow, the bottom 2" is still ice. That got me wondering about the water content in the corn snow. There seems to be a lot of air space in the corn layer, surely not the water content that we had a few weeks ago. The pack is still frozen together enough to hold my weight, but once broken up, it just crumbles into a much smaller pile of granuals. How is snowpack water content measured, and is there a web site that publishes current measurements? Has the threat of flooding been reduced?

03-14-2008, 07:20 AM	#1
Lakegeezer Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Moultonboro, NH Posts: 1,677 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 354 Thanked 639 Times in 290 Posts	Measuring snowpack water content While playing with the 22" of snowpack in my front yard this morning, I noticed it has changed a lot in the past week or so. The top 20" is corn snow, the bottom 2" is still ice. That got me wondering about the water content in the corn snow. There seems to be a lot of air space in the corn layer, surely not the water content that we had a few weeks ago. The pack is still frozen together enough to hold my weight, but once broken up, it just crumbles into a much smaller pile of granuals. How is snowpack water content measured, and is there a web site that publishes current measurements? Has the threat of flooding been reduced? __________________ -lg