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View Poll Results: Which precip and snow reports do you prefer:
Seeing daily reports (midnight – midnight) 11 68.75%
Seeing 24hr reports (7am – 7am) 4 25.00%
Other - Please post and see below 1 6.25%
Voters: 16. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-27-2018, 02:53 PM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,399 posts, read 74,915,183 times
Reputation: 16571

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I wish Canada made the CoCoRaHS data official. They need more snow reports from Canada and the network has a lot.

https://twitter.com/AshtonCBS4/statu...48411235762177
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Old 09-19-2018, 12:29 PM
 
Location: Baltimore, MD
833 posts, read 495,161 times
Reputation: 233
Month of September so far. Missed the meteorological fall and month of September total count by 15 MINUTES! Rain just had to start 15 minutes early. Oh well

Interesting to see week of 9/9 had rain every day.


Notable Events:
9/6 - Severe thunderstorm with hail. 1.81"
9/9-10 - Remnants of Tropical Cyclone Gordon. 1.34"
9/18-19 - Post-Tropical Cyclone Florence moves through. 0.32"
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Old 09-19-2018, 02:25 PM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,399 posts, read 74,915,183 times
Reputation: 16571
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solstodur View Post
Month of September so far. Missed the meteorological fall and month of September total count by 15 MINUTES! Rain just had to start 15 minutes early. Oh well
Interesting to see week of 9/9 had rain every day.

Notable Events:
9/6 - Severe thunderstorm with hail. 1.81"
9/9-10 - Remnants of Tropical Cyclone Gordon. 1.34"
9/18-19 - Post-Tropical Cyclone Florence moves through. 0.32"
Stuck front that week.



Just got this email today.

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Old 09-26-2018, 04:43 PM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,399 posts, read 74,915,183 times
Reputation: 16571
Not just Idaho. Contact your local NWS or Coordinator to get started

https://twitter.com/NWSBoise/status/1045078961473167362
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Old 03-06-2019, 10:27 AM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,399 posts, read 74,915,183 times
Reputation: 16571
Default How to get a SWE Measurement

Here's how to find out how much water content the snow has and how much water is sitting on the ground.


First: Stick a ruler in a flat open spot without drifts if you can.

Second: Put a rain gauge upside down straight down into the snowpack. I have 2 rain gauges as seen here just to make it easier to do hourly catches.. You can use any rain gauge to do this. (Might be harder when there is a lot of snow to cram the snow into the smaller gauge)


Third: Have a spatula ready


Forth: with the spatula cut out a section in front of the gauge so you don't accidently get more snow in there when you slide the spatula underneath.





Fifth: Stick the spatula underneath it, where the opening to the rain gauge is. Hold the spatula and the bottom of rain gauge and flip right side up.





You're left with this... A nice snow core.





Now the fun part. Bring it inside. Have pen, paper, and calculator ready.


If you are using a smaller gauge and only have 1, then you need to be patient and wait for it to melt. Use a hairdryer maybe or put near heat source.


If you have 2 gauges. This is the method..


Fill up the inner tube with warm water (or your second rain gauge MUST BE THE SAME TYPE)
Write down how much warm water you put in the gauge with the snow in it. Keep doing this until you have enough to melt all the snow down to liquid. Stir it so warm water mixes around.


Not done yet.





It took 4 inner tube warm water fills to melt it. Now, the next fun part. Lets start measuring.


Just use the funnel and inner tube and keep writing down all the measurments.





This is what I got. Numbers on the far right was the warm water added. Numbers to left of that is the entire water content. Subtract the warm water added and you get how much water the snow core was. 1.35" sitting on the ground.





Hope this helps. It's fun and it really doesn't take long to do unless you only have 1 gauge.


You can do it for any amount of snow obviously.
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Old 03-06-2019, 02:24 PM
 
Location: Baltimore, MD
833 posts, read 495,161 times
Reputation: 233
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium View Post
Here's how to find out how much water content the snow has and how much water is sitting on the ground.


First: Stick a ruler in a flat open spot without drifts if you can.

Second: Put a rain gauge upside down straight down into the snowpack. I have 2 rain gauges as seen here just to make it easier to do hourly catches.. You can use any rain gauge to do this. (Might be harder when there is a lot of snow to cram the snow into the smaller gauge)


Third: Have a spatula ready


Forth: with the spatula cut out a section in front of the gauge so you don't accidently get more snow in there when you slide the spatula underneath.





Fifth: Stick the spatula underneath it, where the opening to the rain gauge is. Hold the spatula and the bottom of rain gauge and flip right side up.





You're left with this... A nice snow core.





Now the fun part. Bring it inside. Have pen, paper, and calculator ready.


If you are using a smaller gauge and only have 1, then you need to be patient and wait for it to melt. Use a hairdryer maybe or put near heat source.


If you have 2 gauges. This is the method..


Fill up the inner tube with warm water (or your second rain gauge MUST BE THE SAME TYPE)
Write down how much warm water you put in the gauge with the snow in it. Keep doing this until you have enough to melt all the snow down to liquid. Stir it so warm water mixes around.


Not done yet.





It took 4 inner tube warm water fills to melt it. Now, the next fun part. Lets start measuring.


Just use the funnel and inner tube and keep writing down all the measurments.





This is what I got. Numbers on the far right was the warm water added. Numbers to left of that is the entire water content. Subtract the warm water added and you get how much water the snow core was. 1.35" sitting on the ground.





Hope this helps. It's fun and it really doesn't take long to do unless you only have 1 gauge.


You can do it for any amount of snow obviously.
I switched to the mass-measurement style. Much faster than the add-water method (got difficult in snowstorms, had to improvise with crazy solutions) and helps since I only have one gauge.

Here are my steps in the morning:
1. Grab gauge and wipe the outside of it to prevent it from adding to the mass
2. Mass the gauge.



3. Pour out all liquid. If you want to be really accurate you can pour it into the internal funnel and add it up. Just as data validation.

4. Wipe down the inside of the gauge with a paper towel. Get all the moisture out. Measure the end weight of the gauge. This is the "dry weight" of the gauge.

5. Now subtract the "dry weight" from the measurement with water in it. For my example, 1033g - 469g = 564g of liquid.

6. Divide by 200.8. This is the number cocorahs gives for conversion into inches of liquid. 564/200.8 = 2.809" of liquid.

This also works with snow. Just use the same technique, and wash out all the snow later.
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Old 03-06-2019, 02:36 PM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,399 posts, read 74,915,183 times
Reputation: 16571
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solstodur View Post
I switched to the mass-measurement style. Much faster than the add-water method (got difficult in snowstorms, had to improvise with crazy solutions) and helps since I only have one gauge.

Here are my steps in the morning:
1. Grab gauge and wipe the outside of it to prevent it from adding to the mass
2. Mass the gauge.



3. Pour out all liquid. If you want to be really accurate you can pour it into the internal funnel and add it up. Just as data validation.

4. Wipe down the inside of the gauge with a paper towel. Get all the moisture out. Measure the end weight of the gauge. This is the "dry weight" of the gauge.

5. Now subtract the "dry weight" from the measurement with water in it. For my example, 1033g - 469g = 564g of liquid.

6. Divide by 200.8. This is the number cocorahs gives for conversion into inches of liquid. 564/200.8 = 2.809" of liquid.

This also works with snow. Just use the same technique, and wash out all the snow later.
Pretty cool. Never heard of that. Actually did but ignored. Lol. I'll always prefer the actual measurement than a weight measurement, seems more accurate. 2.80" seems way off. Or is that from another time?

And if you're melting the contents anyway, why not just pour in funnel and measure?

Have you done a test to see if the numbers match?
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Old 03-06-2019, 03:24 PM
 
Location: Baltimore, MD
833 posts, read 495,161 times
Reputation: 233
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium View Post
Pretty cool. Never heard of that. Actually did but ignored. Lol. I'll always prefer the actual measurement than a weight measurement, seems more accurate. 2.80" seems way off. Or is that from another time?

And if you're melting the contents anyway, why not just pour in funnel and measure?

Have you done a test to see if the numbers match?
That was a multiday report from 12/19-12/27. Looking at the total precip summary through those days on CoCoRaHS it seems correct. Unfortunately there is a very wide spread of numbers for that timeframe (#MicroClimates).

When I started doing it I did comparisons by putting it into the funnel - always slightly higher by about 0.02" or 0.03". But if you think about it you can't get all the water out of the cylinder, the surface tension will leave some behind so it makes sense that the weight would read slightly higher (I believe closer to the true amount). I did a test once with the inner cylinder at 1.00" and the weight result gave the same reading.

Sometimes I can't pour it in the funnel and measure (got to catch the bus in the morning) and if I leave the gauge outside I'll have evaporative losses reaching around 0.06-0.07". If I leave the gauge inside or cover it, I risk missing some precipitation, so I figured this would be the most accurate way for me to measure.
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Old 04-17-2019, 04:33 AM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,399 posts, read 74,915,183 times
Reputation: 16571
Hail Pad? I didn't opt to get one since we don't get hail here and when we do its no larger than a pea

Lot's more reports of hail around the world thanks to observers sending in the report and pictures.

https://twitter.com/mlgriffinWX1/sta...803584/photo/1





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Old 02-08-2021, 05:13 AM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,399 posts, read 74,915,183 times
Reputation: 16571
Here are the steps to taking a core snow sample and get the snowpack SWE (snow water equivalent).


1. Find a spot and have ice cutter tool ready if needed. (sometimes the snowpack is icy)


2. Use ice cutter and rotate down to surface. Slowly lift it out.


3. Stick rain gauge upside down into snowpack


4. Use spatula and flip rain gauge over


5. Bring inside and use warm water to add into rain gauge, *Important to write down how much warm water you are putting in. Stir snow and water until fully melted.


6. Start measuring the liquid in the gauge and then total all numbers and subtract the warm water. Thats how much liquid is sitting on the ground.


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