Snowpack in the Roaring Fork Watershed is at historic lows. Levels usually peak in early April and right now, it’s around 60% of normal for this time of year. But, how are these levels determined? Do people go out in the backcountry after a storm and stick rulers in the snow? In early March, Water Education Colorado and the Roaring Fork Conservancy hosted a trip to a Snow Telemetry - or SNO-TEL - site at the top of McClure Pass. KDNK’s Amy Hadden Marsh went along and found out that measuring snowpack is a more than rulers in the snow.
Snowpack Yields Little Water on McClure Pass
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AH Marsh photo
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NRCS SNOTEL site at the summit of McClure Pass, south of Carbondale, measures snowpack automatically.
AH Marsh photo
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Liza Mitchell, education and outreach coordinator for Roaring Fork Conservancy, points to layers in the snowpack at the top of McClure Pass. Note the brown layer, which suggests airborne dust or dirt at some point this winter.
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Group on a field trip to McClure Pass in March measures snow-water equivalent with a portable, hanging scale and a hollow metal tube.
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Karl Wetlaufer is a hydrologist for Colorado's Natural Resources Conservation Service. He co-facilitated a field trip in March to McClure Pass.
AH Marsh photo