Measurement of Snowfall

• Snowfall is a form of precipitation, which is accumulated over a surface and after some time when it gets melted, runoff is produced.
• Depth of snowfall is measured by snow stake, these are 40 cm wide square box placed permanently to find out total depth of snow.
• Water Equivalent of Snow: Water equivalent of snow is the depth of water that would result in melting of a unit of snow.
• This parameter is very useful to estimate the stream flow due to melting of snow.
• For finding the equivalent depth of water, we assume the density of snow as 0.1 g/cm^3.
• Water equivalent of snow is obtained by two methods:
  • Snow Gauge : They are similar to Raingauge. Melting agents or heating system are sometimes provided to reduce the size of container. Weighing type recording gauge can also be used for measuring the snow precipitation. For it, funnel is removed.
  • Snow Tubes : To extract a sample, the tube is driven into the snow deposit till it reaches the bottom of the deposit and then by twisting it, cut a core. The core is extracted and we obtain water equivalent of snow.

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